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LIBRARY    OF    THE    THEOLOGICAL    SEMINARY 

PRINCETON,     N.     J. 
PRESENTED  BY 


"R.  K.  Fo^-sy-Hlo 

BX  6495  .G67  H69  1897 

Gordon,  A.  J. 

How  Christ  came  to  church 


1.    /?,    (/ir>iy  l^. 


0 


HOW  CHRIST  CAME  TO  CHURCH 


H 


(     JUJ   <)   10 3f 
OW  CHRIS  r  CAMI^:  TO  CHURCH         


thk  pastor's  dream    a  spiritual 
autobio(;raphy.     p,y  a.  i.  (Gordon,  d.  d. 


np  HE  LIFl 
^        ING  T 


iHE  LIFE-STORY,  AND  THE  DREAM  AS  INTERPRET- 
THE  MAN.     BY  A.  T.  ITERSON,  D.  D. 


"  Zo,  /  am  with  you  akvay  " 

The  Christ 


PHILADELPHIA 

AMERICAN    BAPTIST   PUKLICAIION   SOCIKTY 

NEW   YOKK,    BOSTON,    CHICAGO,    ST.    LOUIS,    DALLAS,     ATLANTA 

FLEMING   H.  REVELL  COMPANY 

NEW    YOKK,     CHICAGO,     TORONTO 


Copyright  1895  by  the 
American  Baptist  Publication  Societv 


CONTENTS 

PART    I 
The  Life-Story, vii-xxiv 

PART   II 
How  Christ  Came  to  Church,     .     .     .       1-68 

I.  The  Dream 3 

II.  Here  To-day, »  9 

HI.  And  to  Come  Again 20 

IV.  If  I  Had  not  Come, 32 

V.  In  thy  Light 41 

VI.  The  Temple  of  God  is  Holy 50 

VII.  Cleansing  the  Temple 61 


Vi  CONTENTS 

PART   III 
The  Dream  as  Interpreting  the  Man,     69-123 

I.  Loyalty  to  the  Person  of  Christ,    ...     76 

II.  The  Personal  Coming  of  Christ,     ...     81 

III.  The  Sacredness  of  the  Preacher's  Voca- 

tion,     88 

IV.  Jealousy  for  Divine  Worship 96 

V.  The  Authority  of  the  Word  of  God,    .     .   loi 

VI.  The  Scriptural   Pattern  of  Church  Life,    107 

VII.  The    Presidency   of    the    Spirit    in    the 

Church, 113 

VIII.  The  Last  Message  TO  the  Church,    .     .     .120 


PART  I 


THE  LIFE-STORY 


THE  LIFE-STORY 


HOW  simple  and  brief   are  the  outlines  of  a  hu- 
man life.     And  yet  only  eternity  can  fill  out 
those  outlines,  and  make  visible  the  unseen 
mysteries  which  we  call  character  and  influence. 

Adoniram  Judson  Gordon 

JVas  born  April  /p,  iSj6. 

Was  converted  to  God  in  iS^2^  and  was  bap- 
tized the  same  year. 

Was  in  Nezv  London^  from  i8_^j  to  iS^y ;  in 
BroiV7i  University ^  from  iSjj  to  i860 ;  in  Newton 
Theological  Se}ni?iary^  from  i860  to  i86j. 

Ordained  at  famaica  Plain^June^  ^S6j. 

Married  to  Maria  Hale ^  October  ij^  i86j. 

Removed  to  Boston^  December^  i86g. 

Departed  this  lif\  February  2^  iSgj. 


X  THE   LIFE-STORY 

This  life  thus  reaches  over  a  period  lacking 
little  of  three-score  years,  and  may  be  roughly  di- 
vided into  three  parts,  each  embracing  about  twenty 
years :  the  first  twenty,  his  growth  to  manhood  ;  the 
second  twenty,  his  development  as  a  Bible  student 
and  preacher  of  the  word ;  and  the  third  period 
being  especially  memorable  for  his  maturity  as  a 
Spirit-filled  teacher  and  leader. 

The  character  and  life  of  Dr.  Gordon  are  so  rich, 
both  in  incident  and  suggestion,  so  full  of  lessons  in 
living  for  generations  to  come,  that  it  is  proposed  to 
prepare  a  fuller  biography  hereafter.  But,  by  way  of 
introducing  this  marvelous  personality  to  readers 
who  were  acquainted  with  the  man  only  through  his 
writings  or  public  utterances,  it  may  be  well  to  give 
a  brief  sketch,  as  in  profile,  of  his  leading  charac- 
teristics, and  especially  such  as  may  help  to  eluci- 
date the  experiences  connected  with  the  dream,  here 
recorded. 

Dr.  Gordon  will  long  be  remembered  as  a  prince 
among  the  preachers  and  teachers  of  the  modern 
pulpit.  With  preachers,  as  with  musicians,  there 
are  different  and  distinct  classes,  and  it  is  easy  to 
find  to  which  he  belongs. 

Some  study  to  express  the  word  and  mind  of  God  ; 
they  are  exegetes.  Others  study  their  own  states 
and  express  their  own  spiritual  moods  and  experi- 
ences ;  they  are  autobiographers.  Others  deal  in 
divine  conceptions,  but  invest  them  with  the  inter- 


THE  LIFE-STORY  xi 


est  of  their  own  experimental  history  ;  these  are 
witnesses  and  reach  the  truest  ideal.  Dr.  Gordon 
was  one  of  these.  No  man's  preaching  was  a  more 
faithful  exposition  of  the  word  of  God.  He  would 
have  counted  it  an  affront  to  the  Scriptures  to  use 
them  as  a  mere  convenience  to  hang  his  own 
thoughts  on,  or  caricature  them  by  a  misapplica- 
tion of  sacred  words.  He  was  both  too  original 
in  research  and  too  independent  in  opinion,  to  be- 
come a  mere  reflector  of  others'  views,  like  the  copy- 
ist, or  substitute  sound  for  sense  like  the  dealer  in 
platitudes.  He  honestly,  patiently,  and  prayerfully 
studied  the  word  of  God,  and  then  illustrated — we 
might  almost  say  illuminated — it  by  his  own  experi- 
ence. 

No  review  of  this  life,  however  hasty,  must  leave 
out  his  work  as  an  author.  Ten  marked  contribu- 
tions to  the  literature  of  the  age  remain,  apart  from 
the  editorials  and  more  transient  articles  in  the 
"Watchword,"  the  religious  newspapers,  the  "Mis- 
sionary Review,"  etc.  His  books  fall  into  five 
classes.  One  on  "  The  Ministry  of  Healing,"  an- 
other, his  "  Coronation  Hymnal,"  and  this  last,  his 
"  Spiritual  Autobiography,"  must  stand  by  them- 
selves. Then  there  are  four  precious  books  which 
center  about  the  person  of  Christ:  "In  Christ," 
"The  Two-fold  Life,"  "Grace  and  Glory,"  and 
"  Ecce  Venit."  Two  have  specially  to  do  with  the 
Holy  Spirit  :  "The  Ministry  of  the  Spirit,"  and  the 


Xll  THE   UFE-STORY 


"Holy  Spirit  in  Missions."  But  what  a  wide  range 
and  scope  of  treatment,  and  on  what  vital  themes ! 
It  is  not  too  much  to  say  of  these  books  that  they 
constitute  religious  classics,  and  ought  to  form  part 
of  every  well-furnished  library. 

In  his  literary  style  three  things  are  peculiarly 
prominent  :  first,  his  vigorous  and  discriminating 
use  of  language  ;  secondly,  his  marvelous  power 
of  analysis  and  antithesis  ;  and  thirdly,  his  simple, 
natural,  forceful  illustrations.  In  these  respects 
his  writings  will  repay  any  one  for  critical  and  ha- 
bitual study.  If  the  literary  productions  of  any 
man  of  this  century  can  in  these  respects  supply  a 
better  model  for  young  men  who  are  preparing  to 
preach,  we  know  not  where  they  are  to  be  found. 
Dr.  Gordon's  book,  for  instance,  on  the  "  Ministry 
of  the  Spirit,"  is  so  tersely  written  and  so  carefully 
wrought  out  in  every  part,  that  there  is  scarcely 
one  needless  noun  or  heedless  adjective  in  all  the 
sixty  thousand  words  which  compose  it ;  while  every 
page  bristles  with  new  and  instructive  suggestions ; 
and  the  whole  is  so  reverent  and  worshipful  that  it 
suggests  a  man  consciously  treading  on  holy  ground. 

Twenty-five  years  of  this  serviceable  life  were 
spent  in  the  Clarendon  Street  Church,  Boston ;  and 
in  helping  to  mold  that  church  into  conformity  with 
primitive  apostolic  models  was  found  the  crowning 
work  of  his  life.  It  implies  neither  exaggeration  of 
his  own  merit  nor  depreciation  of  the  service  of  any 


THE  LIFE-STORY  Xlll 


Other  man  to  affirm  that  it  was  permitted  to  him, 
amid  the  atmosphere  of  Unitarianism  and  liberalism, 
to  build  up  a  believing  brotherhood,  characterized 
by  as  simple  worship,  pure  doctrine,  and  primitive 
practice  as  any  other  in  the  world. 

To  those  who  are  familiar  with  the  inner  secrets 
of  the  life  of  this  church,  its  central  charm  is  one 
which  is  not  apparent  to  the  common  eye :  the 
adviinistration  of  the  Holy  Spirit  is  there  devoutly 
recognized  and  practically  realized.  The  beloved 
pastor  sought,  and  with  great  success,  to  impress 
upon  his  people  the  fact  that  in  the  body  of  Christ 
the  Holy  Spirit  literally  though  invisibly  indwells ; 
that  he  is  ready,  if  he  finds  a  willing  people,  to 
oversee  and  administer  all  that  pertains  to  the 
affairs  of  the  body  of  Christ ;  and  that,  as  his 
administration  both  demands  and  depends  upon 
co-operation,  there  must  be  neither  secular  men 
nor  secular  methods  introduced  into  the  practical 
conduct  of  Christ's  church,  but  the  Spirit  of  God 
must  be  recognized  and  realized  as  the  Divine 
Archbishop  finding  there  his  See.  It  took  years 
to  get  this  practically  wrought  into  the  life  of  the 
church  ;  but  under  his  persistent  teaching  and  pa- 
tient pastoral  guidance,  there  came  a  gradual  elimi- 
nation of  worldly  elements,  and  a  gradual  trans- 
formation of  the  whole  church  as  a  working  body 
until  it  has  become  a  model  for  other  churches,  ap- 
proximating very  closely  to  the  apostolic  pattern. 

B 


XIV  THE   LIFE-STORY 

Dr.  Gordon  has  written  many  noble  books  and 
pamphlets  ;  but  among  all  the  volumes  he  has  pro- 
duced, this  is  the  most  complete  and  satisfactory. 
This  church  is  his  permanent  "living  epistle."  The 
golden  pen  of  action,  held  in  the  firm  hand  of  an 
inspired  purpose,  has  been  for  a  quarter  of  a  cen- 
tury writing  out  its  sentences  in  living  deeds,  to  be 
known  and  read  of  all  men.  And  the  greatest  prob- 
lem now  awaiting  solution  is,  how  far  this  church  is 
going  to  prove  that  the  Holy  Spirit  still  administers 
the  body  of  Christ  there.  Should  these  brethren 
show  that  they  have  been  inwardly  saying,  "  I  am 
of  Dr.  Gordon,"  rather  than,  "I  am  of  Christ"; 
and  were  this  church  to  prove  only  a  sheaf,  of  which 
the  pastor  was  the  bond,  and  which  when  the  bond 
is  removed  falls  apart,  it  would  be  a  world-wide  re- 
proach. Jf,  on  the  other  hand,  it  shall  not  only  as 
an  organization  survive  the  pastor's  removal,  but 
shall  preserve  jealously  the  high  type  of  excellence 
it  attained  under  his  ministry;  shall  prove  not  man- 
centered  but  Christ-centered ;  and  shall  regard  itself 
as  a  kind  of  legatee  unto  whom  the  pastor  has  com- 
mitted the  gospel  he  preached,  the  work  he  began, 
and  the  witness  he  maintained,  to  be  guarded  and 
perpetuated — this  survival  of  the  whole  work  when 
the  workman  has  gone  up  higher,  will  be  a  testi- 
mony to  the  whole  church  and  the  whole  world,  as 
mighty  and  as  far-reaching  as  any  witness  of  its 
sort  in  our  creneration. 


THE   LIFE-STORY  XV 


It  is  a  growing  conviction  tliat  the  lifework  of  Dr. 
Gordon  has  reached  singular  completeness,  a  rounded 
symmetry  and  sphericity.  Nothing  seems  wanting. 
In  the  beauty  of  Christian  character  and  culture  he 
had  so  grown  into  the  measure  of  the  stature  of  the 
fullness  of  Christ,  that  it  may  be  doubted  whether  the 
whole  communion  of  believers  presented  one  man 
more  ripe  in  godliness  and  usefulness.  He  was  in 
every  sense  a  great  man  :  great  in  his  mind,  in  his 
genius,  having  not  only  the  administrative  but  the 
creative  faculty ;  not  only  organizing  but  origi- 
nating. His  versatility  was  amazing.  He  would  have 
been  great  in  many  spheres.  Had  he  been  a  judge, 
with  what  judicial  equity  and  probity  he  would  have 
adorned  the  bench.  Had  he  been  a  trained  musi- 
cian, what  glorious  oratorios  he  might  have  given  to 
the  world.  Had  he  been  called  to  rule  an  empire, 
with  what  mingled  ability  and  urbanity  he  would 
have  discharged  imperial  functions. 

But  if  he  was  not  great  in  the  eyes  of  men,  he 
was  great  in  the  eyes  of  the  Lord,  and  greatest  be- 
cause of  his  humility.  Ordinary  progress  is  from 
infancy  to  manhood  ;  but,  as  Hudson  Taylor  says, 
Christian  progress  is  in  the  reverse  order,  from 
manhood  perpetually  backward  toward  the  cradle, 
becoming  a  little  child  again,  one  of  God's  little 
ones,  for  it  is  the  little  ones  that  get  carried  in  the 
Father's  arms  and  fondled. 

Coleridge  sagaciously  hints  that  the  highest  ac- 


XVI  THE   LIFE-STORY 

companiment  of  genius  in  the  moral  sphere  is  the 
carrying  forward  of  the  feelings  of  youth  into  the 
period  of  manhood  and  old  age.  Dr.  Gordon  more 
than  any  man  I  ever  knew  remained  to  the  last  per- 
fectly childlike,  while  he  put  away  and  left  behind 
whatever  was  childish. 

In  estimating  the  character  of  Dr.  Gordon  great 
stress  should  be  laid  on  these  childlike  traits.  The 
man  of  God  was  emphatically  a  child  of  God.  He 
never  lost  his  simplicity  ;  he  rather  grew  toward  it 
than  away  from  it;  there  was  a  perpetual,  return 
toward  the  spirit,  attitude,  and  habitude  of  a  babe 
in  Christ.  His  humility  and  meekness,  his  frank- 
ness and  candor,  his  generosity  and  gentleness,  will 
always  stand  out  conspicuous  in  the  remembrance 
of  all  who  knew  him  best. 

The  love  that  flooded  him  was,  however,  a  super- 
natural grace.  Seldom  do  we  find  such  energy  of 
conviction  softened  by  such  charity  for  differing 
conviction.  His  creed  was  steeped  in  love.  He 
disarmed  criticism  by  magnanimity,  and  blunted 
the  weapons  of  controversy  by  the  impregnable 
armor  of  an  imperturbable  equanimity.  While  I 
was  with  him  on  one  of  our  missionary  tours,  he 
gave  utterance  to  certain  convictions  which  met 
strong  opposition  ;  but  one  of  his  most  stubborn 
opponents  confessed  that  he  would  rather  hear  Dr. 
Gordon  when  he  did  not  agree  with  him  than  any 
other  man  when  he  did. 


THE   LIFE-STORY  XVll 


One  of  the  most  beautiful  features  of  liis  work 
and  character  was  his  unconsciousness  of  the  real 
greatness  of  his  attainment  and  achievement.  When 
the  Spirit  of  God  controls  a  disciple,  growth  in  grace 
and  power  and  service  becomes  so  natural  and  nec- 
essary as  to  be  largely  unconscious  and  in  a  sense 
involuntary.  Great  results  come  without  human 
planning,  certainly  without  human  boasting.  Mrs. 
Stowe  said  of  "  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,"  that  greatest 
work  of  modern  fiction,  that  it  was  never  begun  or 
carried  on  by  her  with  any  thought  of  doing  any 
great  thing  or  becoming  famous.  She  was  simply 
possessed  of  an  idea  which  she  had  to  work  out  in 
a  natural  way,  and  she  was  a  pen  in  the  hands  of 
God.  And  so  yielding  herself  to  him  as  an  instru- 
ment, a  book  was  produced  which  God  used  as  a 
lever  to  upturn  and  overturn  a  monstrous  fabric  of 
wrong  which  it  took  a  hundred  years  to  build,  and 
which  was  buttressed  by  commercial  gains  and  car- 
nal self-interest,  and  justified  in  the  name  of  moral- 
ity and  even  religion.  A  book  was  given  to  the 
world  which  Palmerston  thrice  read  for  its  lessons 
on  statesmanship,  and  which  has  been  translated  into 
fifty  tongues. 

This  Boston  pastor,  even  at  the  very  last,  when 
his  successful  pastorate  seemed  so  solitary  in  its 
greatness,  had  no  sense  of  having  done  any  great 
thing ;  or  if  the  thought  of  his  superb  triumph  ever 
was    suggested  to  him   by  others,  he    could    only 


XVI 11  THE    LIFE-STORY 

answer:  "What  hath  God  wrought!"  "A  man 
can  receive  nothing  except  it  be  given  him  from 
heaven." 

It  is  true,  success  of  such  sort  as  his  is  always 
costly.  No  man  ever  attains  such  exceptional  god- 
liness, or  achieves  such  exceptional  usefulness,  with- 
out getting  a  reputation  for  being  eccentric,  or  as  a 
fanatic,  if  not  a  heretic.  Aristotle  long  ago  said  that 
there  is  no  great  genius  without  some  mixture  of  mad- 
ness ;  nothing  supremely  grand  or  superior  was  ever 
wrought  save  by  a  soul  agitated  by  some  great  un- 
rest and  upheaved  by  some  great  purpose.  The 
torrents  that  are  the  melting  of  stainless  snows, 
high  up  toward  heaven,  and  which  rush  down  the 
side  of  the  mountain  to  carry  healing  waters  afar 
to  dry  and  desert  wastes,  leave  a  scarred  and  torn 
mountain's  breast  behind.  But,  as  Keith  Falconer 
said  :  We  must  not  fear  to  be  thought  eccentric,  for 
what  is  eccentricity  but  being  out  of  center  f  and  we 
must  be  out  of  center  as  to  the  world  if  we  would 
be  adjusted  to  that  other  divine  center  of  which  the 
world  knows  nothing. 

Such  success  also  costs  self-abnegation.  The 
whole  raising  of  our  church-life  depends  on  the 
higher  standard  of  our  ministry.  "  Like  people, 
like  priest."  The  ministry  is  the  supreme  flower 
and  fruit  of  church-life — as  to  growth,  its  sign  of 
consummation  ;  as  to  fruit,  its  seed  of  propagation 
and  reproduction.     The  ambition  after  a  cultivated 


THK   LIKE-STORY  XIX 


ministry  flatters  pride  and  carnality.  But  there  is 
a  culture  which  is  fatal  to  the  highest  fruitfulness 
in  holy  things.  The  common  wild  rose  has  a  per- 
fectly developed  seed  vessel,  but  the  double  rose, 
the  triumph  of  horticulture,  has  none — the  ovaries 
being  by  cultivation  absorbed  into  stamen  and  petal : 
the  beauty  of  the  blossom  is  at  the  expense  of 
the  fertility  of  the  seed  vessel.  There  is  a  type  of 
ministerial  scholarship  that  is  destructively  critical 
and  proudly  intellectual,  and  hinders  soul-saving. 
Let  it  not  be  thought  that  it  cost  Dr.  Gordon 
nothing  to  renounce  and  resign  the  proud  throne 
among  pulpit  orators  and  biblical  scholars  which 
his  gifts  seemed  to  offer,  and  seek  simply  to  be  a 
Spirit-filled  man — consenting  to  be  misunderstood, 
misrepresented,  ridiculed,  that  he  might  be  loyal  to 
the  still  small  voice  within  his  soul ! 

This  beloved  brother  stands  out  as  a  man,  a  man 
of  singularly  gifted  mind,  with  rare  insight  into 
truth  and  clear  methods  of  thinking  and  express- 
ing thought  ;  a  man  of  large  and  noble  heart,  quick 
in  sympathy,  quickened  into  divine  love,  and  know- 
ing the  "expulsive  power  of  a  new  affection"  for 
Christ ;  a  man  of  clean,  pure  tongue,  whose  speech 
was  seasoned  with  salt  and  always  with  grace, 
anointed  with  power  ;  a  man  of  blameless  life,  in 
whose  conduct  the  Babylonian  conspirators  would 
have  found  as  little  flaw  as  in  Daniel's. 

But  he  interests  us  most  of  all  as  the  man  of 


XX  THE   I^IFE-STORY 

God,  the  man  of  the  Book,  versed  in  the  word  of 
God;  the  "man  in  Clirist  "  wliom  we  have  known 
since  "fourteen  years  ago,"  who  looked  back  for  his 
faith  to  Christ's  first  advent,  and  forward  for  his 
hope  to  his  second  coming  ;  tlie  man  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  in  whom  the  Spirit  dwelt,  and  who  dwelt  in 
the  Spirit,  as  the  air  is  in  us  and  we  in  it,  his  ele- 
ment ;  and  as  the  man  of  God,  of  Christ,  of  the 
Spirit ;  in  the  church,  a  faithful  preacher,  loving 
pastor ;  and  in  the  world,  not  of  it,  yet  evermore  to 
it  a  blessing. 

Personally,  the  writer  who  pens  this  loving  trib- 
ute never  thinks  of  Dr.  Gordon  without  recalling 
one  specially  memorable  and  delightful  experience 
of  association  with  him  in  a  mission  tour  among 
the  churches  of  Auld  Scotland  in  1888.  After  the 
World's  Conference  on  Missions  in  Exeter  Hall, 
London,  and  while  we  were  en  route  to  the  "  Eternal 
City,"  an  invitation  came  from  the  Scottish  capital,  so 
urgent  and  earnest,  that  we  should  visit  Edinburgh 
in  the  interest  of  missions  before  the  students  in 
the  theological  schools  had  scattered  for  the  season, 
that  he  felt  moved  to  abandon  the  Continental  trip, 
and  we  went  back  from  Paris,  arriving  at  Edinburgh 
in  time  for  a  garden  party  at  the  grounds  of  Duncan 
McLaren,  Esq.,  on  Saturday  afternoon,  July  14. 
Then  followed  in  rapid  succession  colossal  meetings 
in  the  famous  "  Synod  Halls  "  of  the  Free  Church, 
and  United  Presbyterian  body.     And  so  great  was 


THR   LIFE-STORY  xxi 


the  impression  made  by  Dr.  Gordon's  knowledge 
of  missions,  grasp  of  the  whole  subject,  and  espe- 
cially his  mingled  earnestness  and  unction,  thai 
on  the  sixteenth  of  July  a  crusade  was  proposed 
to  be  undertaken  by  him  and  the  writer  jointly, 
among  the  churches  of  Scotland.  The  pressure 
was  so  great  that  we  yielded  as  to  the  will  of  God, 
and  after  a  week  in  Edinburgh,  with  other  great 
meetings  in  the  Synod  Halls,  we  left  together,  visit- 
ing Oban,  Inverness,  Strathpeffer,  Nairn,  Forres, 
Elgin,  and  Aberdeen,  where  we  spent  August  5th. 
Dr.  Gordon  then  felt  called  to  return  to  America, 
and  the  rest  of  the  tour  was  without  his  helpful  in- 
spiration. But  wherever  he  went  in  1888  he  is  re- 
membered, and  will  not  be  forgotten  while  this  gen- 
eration lasts.  That  year  the  impulse  thus  given  to 
missions  was  such  that  more  candidates  offered  and 
more  money  was  contributed  than  in  any  previous 
year.  Would  that  such  a  man  could  have  been 
spared  to  make  a  world-tour  of  missions  and  carry 
a  like  inspiration  elsewhere  !  When  we  think  of 
such  a  man,  taken  from  us  in  his  very  prime,  when 
we  might  have  counted  on  twenty  years  more  of 
service,  we  can  only  remember  the  words  of  Holy 
Scripture  : 

"Be  still,  and  know  that  I  am  God." 

"  I  was  dumb  with  silence  :  " 

"  I  opened  not  my  mouth  because  Thou  didst 
it." 


XXll  THE   LIFE-STORY 

"  What  I  do  thou  knowest  not  now  ;  " 

"•  But  thou  shalt  know  hereafter." 

We  have  not  yet  come  to  the  point  where  we 
may  penetrate  the  thick  darkness  where  God  dwells, 
and  know  the  secrets  of  his  purpose  who  doeth  all 
things  well.  We  can  only  trust  blindly  in  the 
promise  that  all  things  work  together  for  good  to 
them  that  love  God. 

"Ye  sorrow  not  as  others  which  have  no  hope." 
Sorrow  is  not  forbidden,  but  a  hopeless  sorrow  is 
also  a  faithless  sorrow. 

We  begin  the  New  Testament  with  Rama,  where 
Rachel's  disconsolate  grief  still  echoes,  weeping  and 
refusing  to  be  comforted  for  those  who  are  not. 
But  we  are  to  leave  Rama  behind  as  we  find  Him 
who  says  :  "  I  am  the  Resurrection  and  the  Life," 
and  move  on  in  his  company  toward  the  New  Jeru- 
salem. 

Even  the  Psalm  of  Moses  (90  :  15,  16)  teaches 
us  a  sublime  lesson  in  divine  compensation,  "  Make 
us  glad  according  to  the  days  wherein  thou  hast 
afflicted  us."  An  inspired  prayer  is  also  a  proph- 
ecy. If  we  submit  cheerfully  to  him  he  will  give 
us  gladness  for  every  aflfliction  and  evil  day,  and 
even  so  great  a  sorrow  as  this  shall  somehow  be 
turned  into  joy. 

Professor  Chapell  has  suggested  a  most  appro- 
priate quotation  as  the  epitaph  of  this  holy  man  and 
witness  for  Christ  : 


THE    LIFE-STORY  XXlll 

"  /  think  it  meet,  as  long  as  I  am  in  this  tabernacle, 

To  stir  you  up  by  putting  you  in  7'emembrance  ; 
Knowing  that  shortly  I  must  put  off  this  my  taber- 
nacle, 
Even  as  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  hath  shelved  me. 
Moreover  I  ivill  endeavour  that  ye  may  be  able 
After  my  decease 
To  have  these  things  always  in  remembrance. 
For  zue  have  not  followed  cunnijigly  devised  fables. 

When  we  made  known  unto  you 
The  power  and  coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  ^  ' 

1  2  Peter  I  :  13-16. 


PART  11 


HOW  CHRIST  CAME  TO  CHURCH 


HOW  CHRIST  CAME  TO  CHURCH 


THE    DREAM 


NOT  that  I  attach  any  importance  to  dreams  or 
ever  have  done  so.  Of  the  hundreds  which 
have  come  in  the  night  season  I  cannot  remem- 
ber one  which  has  proved  to  have  had  any  prophetic 
significance  either  for  good  or  ill.  As  a  rule  more- 
over, dreams  are  incongruous  rather  than  serious,  a 
jumble  of  impossible  conditions  in  which  persons 
and  things  utterly  remote  and  unconnected  are 
brought  together  in  a  single  scene.  But  the  one 
which  I  now  describe  was  unlike  any  other  within 
my  remembrance,  in  that  it  was  so  orderly  in  its 
movement,  so  consistent  in  its  parts,  and  so  fitly 
framed  together  as  a  whole.  I  recognize  it  only  as  a 
dream  ;  and  yet  I  confess  that  the  impression  of  it 
was  so  vivid  that  in  spite  of  myself  memory  brings 
it  back  to  me  again  and  again,  as  though  it  were  an 
actual  occurrence  in  my  personal  history. 

And  yet  why  should  it  be  told  or  deliberately 
committed  to  print  .-*  "  I  will  come  to  visions  and 
revelations  of  the   Lord,"   says   the    apostle.      His 

3 


4  HOW   CHRIST   CAME   TO   CHURCH 

was  undeniably  a  real,  divinely  given,  and  super- 
natural vision.  But  from  the  ecstasy  of  it,  wherein 
he  was  caught  up  into  paradise  and  heard  unspeak- 
able words,  he  immediately  lets  himself  down  to  the 
common  level  of  discipleship.  "  Yet  of  myself  I 
will  not  glory  but  in  my  infirmities."  God  help  us 
to  keep  to  this  good  confession  evermore  ;  and  if 
perchance  any  unusual  lesson  is  taught  even  "  in 
visions  of  the  night  when  deep  sleep  falleth  on 
men"  let  us  not  set  ourselves  up  as  the  Lord's 
favorites  to  whom  he  has  granted  especial  court 
privileges  in  the  kingdom  of  heav-en.  No,  the 
dream  is  not  repeated  as  though  it  were  a  creden- 
tial of  peculiar  saintship,  or  as  though  by  it  God 
had  favored  me  with  a  supernatural  revelation  ;  but 
because  it  contains  a  simple  and  obvious  lesson,  out 
of  which  the  entire  book  which  we  are  now  writing 
has  been  evolved. 

It  was  Saturday  night,  when  wearied  from  the 
work  of  preparing  Sunday's  sermon,  that  I  fell 
asleep  and  the  dream  came.  I  was  in  the  pulpit 
before  a  full  congregation,  just  ready  to  begin  my 
sermon,  when  a  stranger  entered  and  passed  slowly 
up  the  left  aisle  of  the  church  looking  first  to  the 
one  side  and  then  to  the  other  as  though  silently 
asking  with  his  eyes  that  some  one  would  give  him 
a  seat.  He  had  proceeded  nearly  half-way  up  the 
aisle   when  a  gentleman   stepped   out   and  offered 


THE  DREAM 


him  a  place  in  his  pew,  which  was  quietly  accepted. 
Excepting  the  face  and  features  of  the  stranger 
everything  in  the  scene  is  distinctly  remembered — 
the  number  of  the  pew,  the  Christian  man  who 
offered  its  hospitality,  the  exact  seat  which  was 
occupied.  Only  the  countenance  of  the  visitor 
could  never  be  recalled.  That  his  face  wore  a 
peculiarly  serious  look,  as  of  one  who  had  known 
some  great  sorrow,  is  clearly  impressed  on  my  mind. 
His  bearing  too  was  exceeding  humble,  his  dress 
poor  and  plain,  and  from  the  beginning  to  the  end 
of  the  service  he  gave  the  most  respectful  atten- 
tion to  the  preacher.  Immediately  as  I  began  my 
sermon  my  attention  became  riveted  on  this  hearer. 
If  I  would  avert  my  eyes  from  him  for  a  moment 
they  would  instinctively  return  to  him,  so  that  he 
held  my  attention  rather  than  I  held  his  till  the 
discourse  was  ended. 

To  myself  I  said  constantly,  "  Who  can  that 
stranger  be  .-* "  and  then  I  mentally  resolved  to  find 
out  by  going  to  him  and  making  his  acquaintance 
as  soon  as  the  service  should  be  over.  But  after 
the  benediction  had  been  given  the  departing  con- 
gregation iiled  into  the  aisles  and  before  I  could 
reach  him  the  visitor  had  left  the  house.  The  gen- 
tleman with  whom  he  had  sat  remained  behind 
however ;  and  approaching  him  with  great  eager- 
ness I  asked  :  "  Can  you  tell  me  who  that  stranger 
was   who  sat  in  your  pew  this  morning  ?  "     In  the 


HOW   CHRIST   CAME  TO   CHURCH 


most  matter-of-course  way  he  replied  :  "  Why,  do 
you  not  know  that  man  ?  It  was  Jesus  of  Naza- 
reth." With  a  sense  of  the  keenest  disappoint- 
ment I  said  :  "  My  dear  sir,  why  did  you  let  him  go 
without  introducing  me  to  him  ?  I  was  so  desirous 
to  speak  with  him."  And  with  the  same  nonchalant 
air  the  gentleman  replied  :  "  Oh,  do  not  be  troubled. 
He  has  been  here  to-day,  and  no  doubt  he  will  come 
again." 

And  now  came  an  indescribable  rush  of  emotion. 
As  when  a  strong  current  is  suddenly  checked,  the 
stream  rolls  back  upon  itself  and  is  choked  in  its 
own  foam,  so  the  intense  curiosity  which  had  been 
going  out  toward  the  mysterious  hearer  now  re- 
turned upon  the  preacher  :  and  the  Lord  himself 
"whose  I  am  and  whom  I  serve"  had  been  listening 
to  me  to-day.  What  was  I  saying  ?  Was  I  preach- 
ing on  some  popular  theme  in  order  to  catch  the 
ear  of  the  public .''  Well,  thank  God  it  was  of  him- 
self I  was  speaking.  However  imperfectly  done,  it 
was  Christ  and  him  crucified  whom  I  was  holding 
up  this  morning.  But  in  what  spirit  did  I  preach  .-* 
Was  it  "  Christ  crucified  preached  in  a  crucified 
style.'*  "  or  did  the  preacher  magnify  himself  while 
exalting  Christ  .''  So  anxious  and  painful  did  these 
questionings  become  that  I  was  about  to  ask  the 
brother  with  whom  he  had  sat  if  the  Lord  had  said 
anything  to  him  concerning  the  sermon,  but  a  sense 
of  propriety  and  self-respect  at  once  checked  the 


THE   DREAM 


suggestion.  Then  immediately  other  questions  be;- 
gan  with  equal  vehemence  to  crowd  into  the  mind. 
"  What  did  he  think  of  our  sanctuary,  its  gothic 
arches,  its  stained  windows,  its  costly  and  powerful 
organ  ?  How  was  he  impressed  with  the  music 
and  the  order  of  the  worship  ? "  It  did  not  seem 
at  that  moment  as  though  I  could  ever  again  care 
or  have  the  smallest  curiosity  as  to  what  men  might 
say  of  preaching,  worship,  or  church,  if  I  could  only 
know  that  he  had  not  been  displeased,  that  he 
would  not  withhold  his  feet  from  coming  again  be- 
cause he  had  been  grieved  at  what  he  might  have 
seen  or  heard. 

We  speak  of  "a  momentous  occasion."  This, 
though  in  sleep,  was  recognized  as  such  by  the 
dreamer — 3.  lifetime,  almost  an  eternity  of  interest 
crowded  into  a  single  solemn  moment.  One  present 
for  an  hour  who  could  tell  me  all  I  have  so  longed 
to  know  ;  who  could  point  out  to  me  the  imperfec- 
tions of  my  service  ;  who  could  reveal  to  me  my 
real  self,  to  whom,  perhaps,  I  am  most  a  stranger  ; 
who  could  correct  the  errors  in  our  worship  ta 
which  long  usage  and  accepted  tradition  may  have 
rendered  us  insensible.  While  I  had  been  preach- 
ing for  a  half-hour  He  had  been  here  and  listening 
who  could  have  told  me  all  this  and  infinitely  more 
— and  my  eyes  had  been  holden  that  I  knew  him 
not ;  and  now  he  had  gone.  "  Yet  a  little  while  I 
am  with  you  and  then  I  go  unto  him  that  sent  me." 


8  HOW   CHRIST   CAME   TO   CHURCH 

One  thought,  however,  lingered  in  my  mind  with 
something  of  comfort  and  more  of  awe.  "  He  has 
been  here  to-day,  and  no  donbt  he  zvill  come  again'  ; 
and  mentally  repeating  these  words  as  one  regret- 
fully meditating  on  a  vanished  vision,  "  I  awoke,  and 
it  was  a  dream."  No  ,  it  was  not  a  dream.  It  was 
a  vision  of  the  deepest  reality,  a  miniature  of  an 
actual  ministry,  verifying  the  statement  often  re- 
peated that  sometimes  we  are  most  awake  toward 
God  when  we  are  asleep  toward  the  world. 


II 

HERE    TO-DAY 

"  TT  ERE  to-day,  and  to  come  again."  In  this  single 
J^  sentence  the  two  critical  turning-points  of  an 
extended  ministry  are  marked.  It  is  not 
what  we  have  but  what  we  know  that  we  have  which 
determines  our  material  or  spiritual  wealth.  A  poor 
farmer  owned  a  piece  of  hard,  rocky  land  from 
which,  at  the  price  of  only  the  severest  toil,  he  was 
able  to  support  his  family.  He  died  and  be- 
queathed his  farm  to  his  eldest  son.  By  an  acci- 
dent the  son  discovered  traces  of  gold  on  the  land 
which,  being  explored,  was  found  to  contain  mineral 
wealth  of  immense  value.  The  father  had  had  pre- 
cisely the  same  property  which  the  son  now  pos- 
sessed, but  while  the  one  lived  and  died  a  poor  man 
the  other  became  independently  rich.  And  yet  the 
difference  between  the  two  depended  entirely  upon 
the  fact  that  the  son  knew  what  he  had,  and  the 
father  did  not  know.  "Where  two  or  three  are 
gathered  in  my  name  tJicrc  am  I  in  the  midst  of 
them,"  says  Christ. 

Then  the  dream  was  literally  true,  was  it .'' 
Yes.  If  this  promise  of  the  Son  of  God  means 
what     it    says,    Jesus    of    Nazareth    was    present 

9 


lO  HOW   CHRIST   CAME   TO   CHURCH 

not  only  on  that  Sunday  morning,  but  on  every 
Sunday  morning  when  his  disciples  assemble  for 
worship.  "Why,  then,  oh  preacher,  did  you  not  fix 
your  attention  on  him  from  the  first  day  you  stood 
up  in  the  congregation  as  his  witness,  asking  how 
you  might  please  him  before  once  raising  the  ques 
tion  how  you  might  please  the  people,  and  how  in 
your  ministry  you  might  have  his  help  above  the 
help  of  every  other  ?  Was  the  dream  which  came 
to  you  in  the  transient  visions  of  the  night  more 
real  to  you  than  his  own  promise,  ^  Lo,  I  am  zvith 
yon  alway,'  which  is  given  in  that  word  which  en- 
dureth  forever  ?  "  Alas,  that  it  was  ever  so  !  It 
is  not  what  we  know  but  what  we  know  that  we 
know  which  constitutes  our  spiritual  wealth.  I 
must  have  read  and  expounded  these  words  of  Jesus 
again  and  again  during  my  ministry,  but  somehow 
for  years  they  had  no  really  practical  meaning  to 
me.  Then  came  a  blessed  and  ever-to-be-remem- 
bered crisis  in  my  spiritual  life  when  from  a  deeper 
insight  into  Scripture  the  doctrine  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  began  to  open  to  me.  Now  I  apprehended 
how  and  in  what  sense  Jesus  is  present :  not  in 
some  figurative  or  even  potential  sense,  but  liter- 
ally and  really  present  in  the  Holy  Spirit,  his  in- 
visible self.  "  And  I  will  pray  the  Father,  and  he 
shall  give  you  another  Comforter,  that  he  may  abide 
zvith  yon  for  ever''  (John  14  :  16).  The  coming  of 
this  other  Paraclete  was  conditioned  on  the  depart- 


HERE  TO-DAY  '  II 


lire  of  Jesus  :"  If  I  go  I  will  send  him  unto  you." 
And  this  promise  was  perfectly  fulfilled  on  Pente- 
cost. As  truly  as  Christ  went  up,  the  Holy  Ghost 
came  down  :  the  one  took  his  place  at  the  Father's 
right  hand  in  heaven,  the  other  took  his  seat  in  the 
church  on  earth  which  is  "  builded  together  for  a 
habitation  of  God  in  the  Spirit."  And  yet,  lest  by 
this  discourse  about  his  going  and  the  Comforter's 
coming  we  should  be  led  to  think  that  it  is  not 
Christ  who  is  with  us,  he  says,  clearly  referring  to 
the  Spirit :  "  I  will  not  leave  you  orphans  ;  /  ivill 
come  to  you."  Thus  it  is  made  plain  that  the  Lord 
himself  is  truly  though  invisibly  here  in  the  midst 
of  every  company  of  disciples  gathered  in  any  place 
in  his  name. 

If  Christ  came  to  church  and  sat  in  one  of  the 
pews,  what  then  }  Would  not  the  minister  con- 
strain him  to  preach  to  the  people  and  allow  himself 
to  be  a  listener  .?  If  he  were  to  decline  and  say  :  '*  I 
am  among  you  as  one  that  heareth,"  would  he  not 
beg  him  at  least  to  give  the  congregation  some  mes- 
sage of  his  own  throiigh  the  lips  of  the  preacher  "^ 
If  an  offering  for  the  spread  of  the  gospel  among 
the  heathen  were  to  be  asked  on  that  morning, 
would  not  the  Master  be  besought  to  make  the  plea 
and  to  tell  the  people  how  he  himself  "  though  rich, 
for  our  sakes  became  poor  that  we  through  his  pov- 
erty might  be  rich  .' "  If  any  strife  existed  in  the 
flock,   would    there   not    be  an   earnest    appeal   to 


12  HOW   CHRIST  CAME  TO   CHURCH 

him,  the  Good  Shepherd,  to  guide  his  own  sheep  into 
the  right  way  and  to* preserve  the  fold  in  peace? 

Ah,  yes.  And  Christ  did  come  to  church  and 
abode  there,  but  we  knew  it  not,  and  therefore  we 
took  all  the  burden  of  teaching  and  collecting  and 
ofovernino:  on  ourselves  till  we  were  often  wearied 
with  a  load  too  heavy  for  us  to  bear.  Well  do  we 
remember  those  days  when  drudgery  was  pushed  to 
the  point  of  desperation.  The  hearers  must  be 
moved  to  repentance  and  confession  of  Christ ; 
therefore  more  effort  must  be  devoted  to  the  ser- 
mon, more  hours  to  elaborating  its  periods,  more 
pungency  put  into  its  sentences,  more  study  be- 
stowed on  its  delivery.  And  then  came  the  disap- 
pointment that  few,  if  any,  were  converted  by  all 
this  which  had  cost  a  week  of  solid  toil.  And  now 
attention  was  turned  to  the  prayer  meeting  as  the 
possible  seat  of  the  difficulty— so  few  attending  it 
and  so  little  readiness  to  participate  in  its  services. 
A  pulpit  scourging  must  be  laid  on  next  Sunday, 
and  the  sharpest  sting  which  words  can  effect  put 
into  the  lash.  Alas,  there  is  no  increase  in  the  at- 
tendance, and  instead  of  spontaneity  in  prayer  and 
witnessing  there  is  a  silence  which  seems  almost  like 
sullenness  !  Then  the  administration  goes  wrong  and 
opposition  is  encountered  among  officials,  so  that 
caucusing  must  be  undertaken  to  get  the  members 
to  vote  as  they  should.  Thus  the  burdens  of  anxiety 
increase  while  we  are  trying  to  lighten  them,  and 


HERE  TO-DAY  1 3 


should-be  helpers  become  hinderers,  till  discour- 
agement comes  and  sleepless  nights  ensue  ;  these 
hot  boxes  on  the  train  of  our  activities  necessitat- 
ing a  stop  and  a  visit  of  the  doctor,  with  the  ver- 
dict over-work  and  the  remedy  absolute  rest. 

It  was  after  much  of  all  this  of  which  even  the 
most  intimate  friends  knew  nothing,  that  there  came 
one  day  a  still  voice  of  admonition,  saying,  "  There 
staiideth  one  among  you  wliojn  ye  ktiow  not''  And 
perhaps  I  answered,  "  Who  is  he,  Lord,  that  I  might 
know  him  ? "  I  had  known  the  Holy  Ghost  as  a 
heavenly  influence  to  be  invoked,  but  somehow  I 
had  not  grasped  the  truth  that  he  is  a  Person  of 
the  Godhead  who  came  down  to  earth  at  a  definite 
time  and  who  has  been  in  the  church  ever  since, 
just  as  really  as  Jesus  was  here  during  the  thirty 
and  three  years  of  his  earthly  life. 

Precisely  here  was  the  defect.  For  it  may  be  a 
question  whose  loss  is  the  greater,  his  who  thinks 
that  Christ  is  present  with  him  when  he  is  not,  or 
his  who  thinks  not  that  Christ  is  present  with  him 
when  he  is }  Recall  the  story  of  the  missing  child 
Jesus  and  how  it  is  said  that  "  they  supposing  him 
to  be  in  the  company  went  forward  a  day's  journey." 
Alas,  of  how  many  nominal  Christians  is  this  true 
to-day  !  They  journey  on  for  years,  saying  prayers, 
reciting  creeds,  pronouncing  confessions,  giving 
alms,  and  doing  duties,  imagining  all  the  time 
that  because  of  these  things  Christ  is  with  them. 

D 


14  HOW  CHRIST   CAME   TO   CHURCH 

Happy  are  they  if  their  mistake  is  not  discovered 
too  late  for  them  to  retrace  their  steps  and  to  find, 
through  personal  regeneration,  the  renewed  heart 
which  constitutes  the  absolute  essential  to  compan- 
ionship with  the  Son  of  God. 

On  the  other  hand,  how  many  true  Christians  toil 
on,  bearing  burdens  and  assuming  responsibilities 
far  too  great  for  their  natural  strength,  utterly  for- 
getful that  the  mighty  Burden-bearer  of  the  world 
is  with  them  to  do  for  them  and  through  them  that 
which  they  have  undertaken  to  accomplish  alone ! 
Happy  also  for  these  if  some  weary  day  the  blessed 
Paraclete,  the  invisible  Christ,  shall  say  to  them, 
^^  Have  I  been  so  lojtg  time  with  you  and  yet  hast 
thou  not  known  me?  "  So  it  happened  to  the  writer. 
The  strong  Son  of  God  revealed  himself  as  being 
evermore  in  his  church,  and  I  knew  him,  not  through 
a  sudden  burst  of  revelation,  not  through  some  thril- 
ling experience  of  instantaneous  sanctification,  but 
by  a  quiet,  sure,  and  steady  discovery,  increasing 
unto  more  and  more.  Jesus  in  the  Spirit  stood 
with  me  in  a  kind  of  spiritual  epiphany  and  just  as 
definitely  and  irrevocably  as  I  once  took  Christ 
crucified  as  my  sin-bearer  I  now  took  the  Holy 
Spirit  for  my  burden-bearer. 

"Then  you  received  the  baptism  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  did  you .'' "  some  one  will  ask.  Well,  we 
prefer  not  to  use  an  expression  which  is  not  strictly 
biblical.     The  great  promise,  "  Ye  shall  be  baptized 


HERE  TO-DAY  15 


in  the  Holy  Ghost "  was  fulfilled  on  the  day  of 
Pentecost  once  for  all,  as  it  seems  to  us.  Then  the 
Paraclete  was  given  for  the  entire  dispensation,  and 
the  whole  church  present  and  future  was  brought 
into  the  economy  of  the  Spirit,  as  it  is  written  : 
"  For  in  one  Spirit  were  we  all  baptized  into  one 
body"  (I  Cor.  12  :  13,  R.  V.).  But  for  God  to  give  is 
one  thing  ;  for  us  to  receive  is  quite  another.  "  God 
so  loved  that  he  gave  his  only  begotten  Son,"  is  the 
word  of  our  Lord  to  Nicodemus.  But  it  is  written 
also  :  "  As  many  as  received  him  to  them  gave  he 
power  to  become  the  sons  of  God."  In  order  to 
regeneration  and  sonship  it  is  as  absolutely  essen- 
tial for  us  to  receive  as  for  God  to  have  given.  So 
on  the  day  of  Pentecost  the  Holy  Spirit,  as  the 
Comforter,  Advocate,  Helper,  and  Teacher  and 
Guide,  was  given  to  the  church.  The  disciples  who 
before  had  been  regenerated  by  the  Spirit,  as  is 
commonly  held,  now  received  the  Holy  Ghost  to 
qualify  and  empower  them  for  service.  It  was  an- 
other and  higher  experience  than  that  which  they 
had  hitherto  known.  It  is  the  difference  between 
the  Holy  Spirit  for  renewal  and  the  Holy  Spirit  for 
ministry.  Even  Jesus,  begotten  by  the  Holy  Ghost 
and  therefore  called  "the  Son  of  God,"  did  not  enter 
upon  his  public  service  till  he  had  been  "anointed," 
or  "sealed,"  with  that  same  Spirit  through  whom 
he  had  been  begotten.  So  of  his  immediate  apos- 
tles ;  so  of  Paul,  who  had  been  converted  on  the 


1 6  HOW   CHRIST   CAME   TO   CHURCH 

way  to  Damascus.  So  of  the  others  mentioned  in 
the  Acts,  as  the  Samaritan  Christians  and  the 
Ephesian  disciples  (19  :  1-8).  And  not  a  few 
thoughtful  students  of  Scripture  maintain  that 
the  same  order  still  holds  good ;  that  there  is  such 
a  thing  as  receiving  the  Holy  Ghost  in  order  to 
qualification  for  service.  It  is  not  denied  that  many 
may  have  this  blessing  in  immediate  connection 
with  their  conversion,  from  which  it  need  not 
necessarily  be  separated.  Only  let  it  be  marked 
that  as  the  giving  of  the  Spirit  by  the  Father  is 
plainly  spoken  of,  so  distinctly  is  the  receiving  of 
the  Spirit  on  the  part  of  the  disciples  constantly 
named  in  Scripture.  When  the  risen  Christ 
breathed  on  his  disciples  and  said  :  "  Receive  ye 
the  Holy  Ghost,"  it  is  an  active  not  a  passive  re- 
ception which  is  pointed  out,  as  in  the  invitation  : 
"  Whosoever  will,  let  him  take  the  water  of  life 
freely."  Here  the  same  word  is  used  as  also  in  the 
Epistle  to  the  Galatians.  "  Received  ye  the  Spirit 
by  the  works  of  the  law,  or  by  the  hearing  of  faith? " 

(3  :  2.) 

God  forbid  that  we  should  lay  claim  to  any  higher 
attainment  than  the  humblest.  We  are  simply  try- 
ing to  answer,  as  best  we  may  from  Scripture,  the 
question  asked  above  about  the  baptism  of  the  Holy 
Ghost.  On  the  whole,  and  after  prolonged  study 
of  the  Scripture,  we  cannot  resist  this  conviction  : 
As  Christ,  the  second  person  of  the  Godhead,  came 


HERE  TO-DAY  1 7 


to  earth  to  make  atonement  for  sin  and  to  give 
eternal  life,  and  as  sinners  we  must  receive  him  by 
faith  in  order  to  forgiveness  and  sonship,  so  the 
Holy  Spirit,  the  third  person  of  the  Godhead,  came  to 
the  earth  to  communicate  the  "  power  from  on  high  "  ; 
and  we  must  as  believers  in  like  manner  receive 
him  by  faith  in  order  to  be  qualified  for  service. 
Both  gifts  have  been  bestowed,  but  it  is  not  what  we 
have  but  what  we  know  that  we  have  by  a  conscious 
appropriating  faith,  which  determines  our  spiritual 
wealth.  Why  then  should  we  be  satisfied  with  "  the 
forgiveness  of  sins,  according  to  the  riches  of  his 
grace"  (Eph.  i  :  7),  when  the  Lord  would  grant 
us  also  "  according  to  the  riches  of  his  glory,  to  be 
strengthened  with  might  by  his  Spirit  in  the  inner 
man  "  ?  {Eph.  3  :  16.) 

To  return  to  personal  experience.  I  am  glad 
that  one  of  the  most  conservative  as  well  as  emi- 
nent theological  professors  of  our  times,  has  put 
this  matter  exactly  as  I  should  desire  to  see  it 
stated.  He  says  :  "  If  a  reference  to  personal  ex- 
perience may  be  permitted,  I  may  indeed  here  set 
my  seal.  Never  shall  I  forget  the  gain  to  conscious 
faith  and  peace  which  came  to  my  own  soul  not 
long  after  the  first  decisive  and  appropriating  view 
of  the  crucified  Lord  as  the  sinner's  sacrifice  of 
peace,  from  a  more  intelligent  and  conscious  hold 
upon  the  living  and  most  gracious  personality  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  through  whose  mercy  the  soul  had 


l8  HOW   CHRIST   CAME   TO   CHURCH 

got  that  view.  It  was  a  new  development  of  in- 
sight into  the  love  of  God.  It  was  a  new  contact, 
as  it  were,  with  the  inner  and  eternal  movements 
of  redeeming  love  and  power,  and  a  new  discovery 
in  divine  resources.  At  such  a  time  of  finding 
gratitude  and  love  and  adoration  we  gain  a  new,  a 
newly  realized  reason  and  motive  power  and  rest."^ 
"  A  conscious  hold  upon  the  personality  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  ;  "  "a  newly  realized  motive  power," 
Such  it  was  ;  not  the  sending  down  of  some  new  power 
from  heaven  in  answer  to  long  waiting  and  prayer, 
but  an  "articulating  into"  a  power  already  here,  but 
hitherto  imperfectly  known  and  appropriated.  Just 
in  front  of  the  study  window  where  I  write  is  a 
street,  above  which  it  is  said  that  a  powerful  elec- 
tric current  is  constantly  moving.  I  cannot  see 
that  current  :  it  does  not  report  itself  to  hearing,  or 
sight,  or  taste,  or  smell,  and  so  far  as  the  testimony 
of  the  senses  is  to  be  taken,  I  might  reasonably 
discredit  its  existence.  But  I  see  a  slender  arm, 
called  the  trolley,  reaching  up  and  touching  it ;  and 
immediately  the  car  with  its  heavy  load  of  passen- 
gers moves  along  the  track  as  though  seized  in  the 
grasp  of  some  mighty  giant.  The  power  had  been 
there  before,  only  now  the  car  lays  hold  of  it  or  is 
rather  laid  hold  of  by  it,  since  it  was  a  touch,  not  a 
grip,  through  which  the  motion  was  communicated. 

1  Principal  H.  C.  G.  Moule,  Ridley  Hall,  Cambridge,  Eng.,  "  Vent 
Creator  Spiritus^''  p.  13. 


HERE  TO-DAY  19 


And  would  it  be  presumptuous  for  one  to  say  that 
he  had  known  something  of  a  similar  contact  with 
not  merely  a  divine  force  but  a  divine  person  ? 
The  change  which  ensued  may  be  described  thus  : 
Instead  of  praying  constantly  for  the  descent  of  a 
divine  influence  there  was  now  a  surrender,  how- 
ever imperfect,  to  a  divine  and  ever-present  Being  : 
instead  of  a  constant  effort  to  make  use  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  for  doing  my  work  there  arose  a  clear 
and  abiding  conviction  that  the  true  secret  of  ser- 
vice lay  in  so  yielding  to  the  Holy  Spirit  that  he 
might  use  me  to  do  his  work.  Would  that  the 
ideal  might  be  so  perfectly  realized  that  over  what- 
ever remains  of  an  earthly  ministry,  be  it  shorter  or 
longer,  might  be  written  the  slightly  changed  motto 
of  Adolphe  Monod  : 

"  All  throiigJi  Christ :  in  the  Holy  Spirit :  for  the 
glory  of  God.     All  else  is  nothing." 


Ill 

AND    TO    COME    AGAIN 

THE  apprehension  of  the  doctrine  of  Christ's 
second  advent  came  earlier  than  the  realiza- 
tion of  the  other  doctrine,  that  of  his  abiding 
presence  in  the  church  in  the  Holy  Spirit.  But  its 
discovery  constituted  a  no  less  distinct  crisis  in  my 
ministry.  "  This  same  Jesus,  which  is  taken  up 
from  you  into  heaven,  sJiall  so  come  in  like  manner 
as  ye  have  seen  him  go  into  heaven,''  is  the  parting 
promise  of  Jesus  to  his  disciples,  communicated 
through  the  two  men  in  white  apparel,  as  a  cloud 
received  him  out  of  their  sight.  When  after  more 
than  fifty  years  in  glory  he  breaks  the  silence  and 
speaks  once  more  in  the  Revelation  which  he  gave 
to  his  servant  John,  the  post-ascension  Gospel  w^iich 
he  sends  opens  with,  "  Behold,  he  cometh  with 
clonds,''  and  closes  with  "  Surely  I  come  qjiickly!^ 
Considering  the  solemn  emphasis  thus  laid  upon 
this  doctrine,  and  considering  the  great  prominence 
given  to  it  throughout  the  teaching  of  our  Lord 
and  of  his  apostles,  how  was  it  that  for  the  first 
five  years  of  my  pastoral  life  it  had  absolutely  no 
place  in  my  preaching.-'  Undoubtedly  the  reason 
lay  in  the  lack  of  early  instruction.     Of  all  the 


AND  TO  COME  AGAIN  21 


sermons  heard  from  childhood  on,  I  do  not  remem- 
ber listening  to  a  single  one  upon  this  subject.  In 
the  theological  course,  while  this  truth  had  its  place 
indeed,  it  was  taught  as  in  most  theological  semi- 
naries of  this  country,  according  to  the  post-mil- 
lennial interpretation  ;  and  with  the  most  reverent 
respect  for  the  teachers  holding  this  view  I  must 
express  my  mature  conviction  that,  though  the  doc- 
trine of  our  Lord's  second  coming  is  not  ignored 
in  this  system,  it  is  placed  in  such  a  setting  as  to 
render  it  quite  impractical  as  a  theme  for  preaching 
and  quite  inoperative  as  a  motive  for  Christian 
living.  For  if  a  millennium  must  intervene  before 
the  return  of  our  Lord  from  heaven,  or  if  the 
world's  conversion  must  be  accomplished  before  he 
shall  come  in  his  glory,  how  is  it  possible  for  his 
disciples  in  this  present  time  to  obey  his  words  : 
"  Watch,  therefore,  for  ye  know  not  what  hour  your 
Lord  shall  come  "  .'' 

I  well  remember  in  my  early  ministry  hearing 
two  humble  and  consecrated  laymen  speaking  of 
this  hope  in  the  meetings  of  the  church,  and  urg- 
ing it  upon  Christians  as  the  ground  of  unworld- 
liness  and  watchfulness  of  life.  Discussion  fol- 
lowed with  these  good  brethren,  and  then  a  search- 
ing of  the  Scriptures  to  see  if  these  things  were 
so ;  and  then  a  conviction  of  their  truth ;  and 
then  ?  The  godly  William  Hewitson  declares  that 
the  discovery  of  the  scriptural  hope  of  our  Lord's 


22  HOW   CHRIST   CAME   TO   CHURCH 

second  coming  wrought  in  him  a  change  amounting 
almost  to  a  second  conversion.  What  if  anotlier, 
not  presuming  to  be  named  in  company  with  this 
consecrated  saint,  should  nevertheless  set  his  hand 
and  seal  to  the  affirmation  that  the  strongest  and 
most  permanent  impulse  of  his  ministry  came  from 
his  apprehension  of  the  blessed  hope  of  our  Lord's 
second  coming  ? 

But  how  is  it  that  this  doctrine,  so  plainly  and 
conspicuously  written  in  Scripture,  could  have  re- 
mained so  long  undiscovered  ?  In  answering  this 
question  we  see  how  little  ground  we  have  for 
glorying  over  the  Jews.  They  did  not  recognize 
Christ  in  his  first  advent  because  they  discerned  in 
Scripture  only  those  predictions  which  announced 
him  as  a  reigning  and  conquering  Messiah.  This 
conception  they  wove  into  a  veil  of  exposition  and 
tradition  so  thick  that  when  Jesus  appeared  as  the 
lowly  and  humble  Nazarene  they  knew  him  not, 
but  "hid  as  it  were  their  faces  from  him."  And 
this  strong  prepossession  still  obscures  their  vision 
so  that  "  even  unto  this  day  when  Moses  is  read  the 
veil  is  upon  their  heart." 

With  the  larger  mass  of  Gentile  Christians  the 
case  is  just  the  reverse.  They  know  Christ  cruci- 
fied, and  believing  that  the  Cross  is  to  conquer  the 
world  and  that  the  preaching  of  the  gospel  in  the 
present  dispensation  is  to  bring  all  men  to  God, 
they  see  no  need  of  the  personal  coming  of  the 


AND   TO  COME   AGAIN  23 


Christ  as  king  to  subdue  all  things  under  his  feet 
and  to  reign  visibly  on  the  earth.  This  concep- 
tion in  turn  has  been  woven  into  an  elaborate 
veil  of  tradition  for  Gentile  believers  and  "  until 
this  day,  remaineth  the  same  veil  untaken  away " 
in  the  reading  of  the  New  Testament. 

It  was  not  so  in  the  beginning.  For  three  hun- 
dred years  the  church  occupied  the  position  of  a 
bride  awaiting  the  return  of  the  bridegroom  from 
heaven — she,  meantime,  holding  herself  free  from 
all  alliance  with  this  world,  content  to  fullill  her 
calling  in  witnessing  for  Christ,  in  suffering  with 
Christ,  and  so  to  accomplish  her  appointed  work  of  the 
gathering  out  of  the  elect  body  for  the  Lord  "  until 
he  come."  A  strange  and  almost  grotesque  con- 
ception to  many  modern  Christians  no  doubt.  But 
it  was  while  maintaining  this  attitude  that  the 
church  moved  on  most  rapidly  and  irresistibly  in 
her  missionary  conquests. 

Then  came  the  foreshadowings  of  the  great  apos- 
tasy. The  world  which  had  been  a  foe  to  the 
church  became  her  friend  and  patron  ;  Constantine, 
the  emperor  of  Rome,  became  her  head,  and  thus 
the  eyes  of  Christians  began  to  be  withdrawn  from 
him  who  is  "  Head  over  all  things  to  his  church." 
The  great  and  good  Augustine  yielded  to  the  seduc- 
tion and  was  among  the  first  to  teach  that  in  the 
temporal  triumph  of  Christianity  the  kingdom  had 
already  come,  though  the  King  with  whose  return 


24  HOW  CHRIST  CAME   TO  CHURCH 

the  primitive  church  had  been  wont  to  identify  the 
appearing  of  the  kingdom  was  still  absent.  Little 
by  little,  as  the  apostasy  deepened,  this  early  hope 
of  Christians  became  eclipsed  till,  in  the  words  of 
Auberlin,  "  when  the  church  became  a  harlot  she 
ceased  to  be  a  bride  who  goes  forth  to  meet  her 
Bridegroom,"  and  thus  chiliasm  disappeared.  What 
moreover  would  have  been  deemed  an  apostasy  in 
the  primitive  church  grew  into  a  tradition  and  a 
creed  in  the  post-Nicene  church,  which  creed  until 
this  day  largely  rules  the  faith  of  Christians. 

Within  fifty  years,  however,  there  has  been  a 
widespread  revival  of  the  early  teaching  on  this 
point,  especially  among  the  most  eminent  evan- 
gelists and  missionary  promoters,  until  to-day  in  a 
great  company  of  devout  Christians,  the  uplifted 
gaze  is  once  more  visible,  and  the  advent  cry  "  Even 
so  come,  Lord  Jesus,"  is  once  more  heard. 

"  But  tell  me,"  we  hear  some  one  saying,  "how 
it  is  that  this  doctrine  can  have  such  an  inspiring 
and  uplifting  influence  as  you  claim  for  it .?  "  We 
answer,  in  more  ways  than  can  be  described  in  a 
single  chapter. 

"  The  doctrine  of  the  Lord's  second  coming  as 
it  appears  in  the  New  Testament,"  says  an  emi- 
nent Scotch  preacher,  "  is  like  a  lofty  mountain 
which  dominates  the  entire  landscape."  An  admir- 
able illustration !  For  in  such  a  case,  no  matter 
what  road  you  take,  no  matter  what  pass  you  tread, 


AND   TO  COME   AGAIN  25 

you  will  find  the  mountain  bursting  on  your  vision 
at  every  turn  of  the  way  and  at  every  parting  of 
the  hills.  What  first  struck  me  now,  in  reading  the 
New  Testament,  was  something  like  this  :  What- 
ever doctrine  I  was  pursuing,  whatever  precept  I 
was  enforcing,  I  found  it  fronting  toward  and  ter- 
minating in  the  hope  of  the  Lord's  second  coming. 
Js  watchfulness  amid  the  allurements  of  the  world 
enjoined,  the  exhortation  is  :  "  Watch  therefore ; 
for  yc  knozv  not  zvJiat  hour  your  Lord  doth  come  " 
(Matt.  24  :  42).  Is  patience  under  trial  and  injus- 
tice counseled  .-'  The  word  is  :  "  Be  patient  there- 
fore, brethren,  !tnto  the  coming  of  the  Lord''  (James 
5  :  7).  Is  an  ideal  church  presented  concerning 
whose  deportment  the  apostle  "  needs  not  to  speak 
anything  "  }  Its  commendation  is  :  "  Ye  turned  to 
God  from  idols  to  serve  the  living  and  true  God  ; 
and  to  zvait for  his  Soji  from  Jieaven  "  (i  Thess.  i  : 
9,  10).  Is  holy  living  urged.'  This  is  the  inspi- 
ring motive  thereto  :  "  That,  denying  ungodliness 
and  worldly  lusts,  we  should  live  soberly,  right- 
eously, and  godly,  in  this  present  world  ;  looking  for 
that  blessed  hope,  and  the  glorious  appearijig  of  the 
great  God  and  onr  Saviour  Jesus  Christ''  (Titus  2  : 
12,  13).  All  paths  of  obedience  and  service  lead 
onward  to  the  mountain.  Our  command  to  service 
bids  us  "Occupy  till  L  come"  (Luke  19  :  13).  In 
observing  the  Lord's  Supper  we  "  shew  the  Lord's 
death  ////  he  come  "  (i  Cor.  1 1  :  26).     In  the  injunc- 

E 


26  HOW   CHRIST   CAME   TO   CHURCH 

tion  to  fidelity  the  word  is  that  we  "  keep  this  com- 
mandment without  spot,  unrebukable,  jintil  the 
appearing  of  oicr  Lo7-d  Jcsiis  Christ''  (i  Tim.  6  :  14). 
Let  any  candid  reader  collate  the  texts  in  the  New 
Testament  on  this  subject,  and  he  will  see  that  our 
statement  as  to  the  pre-eminence  of  this  doctrine  is 
not  exaggerated. 

To  pursue  the  figure  farther.  As  all  the  roads 
lead  toward  the  mountain,  so  conversely  the  moun- 
tain looks  out  upon  all  the  roads.  Take  your  stand 
in  the  doctrine  of  the  Lord's  coming  and  make  it 
your  point  of  observation  for  viewing  Scripture,  and 
your  map  of  redemption  will  very  soon  take  shape, 
and  the  relation  of  part  to  part  will  become 
apparent.  Just  as  Christ  crucified  is  the  center  of 
soteriology,  so  Christ  coming  again  is  the  center  of 
eschatology.  Place  the  Saviour  where  the  Script- 
ures place  him,  on  the  cross — "  who  his  own  self  bare 
our  sins  in  his  own  body  on  the  tree" — and  all  the 
teachings  of  the  ceremonial  law  become  intelligible, 
and  its  types  and  offerings  fit  together  into  one 
harmonious  system.  God  forbid  that  we  should 
by  a  grain's  weight  lessen  the  emphasis  upon  Christ 
crucified.  This  is  the  central  fact  of  redemption 
accomplished.  Even  so  put  Christ  coming  into  his 
scriptural  place  and  all  the  prophecies  and  Mes- 
sianic hopes  of  the  Old  Testament  and  the  New  be- 
come intelligible — the  establishment  of  the  king- 
dom, the  restoration  of  Israel,  the  renewing  of  all 


^f 


m 


AND  TO   COME   AGAIN  27 

things.  These  two  centers — Christ  crucified  and 
Christ  coming — must  be  rigidly  maintained  if  all 
the  Bible  is  to  be  utilized  and  all  its  teachings  har- 
monized. 

So  the  writer  bears  joyful  testimony  that  the  dis- 
covery of  this  primitive  doctrine  of  the  gospel,  the 
personal  pre-millennial  coming  of  Christ,  constituted 
a  new  era  in  his  study  of  the  word  of  God,  and 
gave  an  opening-out  into  vistas  of  truth  hitherto 
undreamed  of.  And  moreover,  apart  from  the 
question  of  eschatology,  it  was  the  means  of  the 
deepest  and  firmest  anchoring  in  all  the  doctrines 
of  the  evangelical  faith.  Why  should  not  this  be 
the  case  ?  If  it  is  true,  as  one  has  said,  that 
"  when  the  smallest  doctrine  in  the  body  of  truth 
is  mutilated  it  is  sure  to  avenge  itself  upon  the 
whole  system,"  why  should  it  not  be  even  more  cer- 
tainly the  case,  that  one  of  the  mountain  truths  of 
Scripture  being  recognized,  all  neighboring  doctrines 
should  be  lifted  into  distincter  prominence  around 
its  base  ?  At  all  events,  I  confess  myself  so  in- 
debted to  this  hope  in  every  way,  that  I  cannot 
measure  the  loss  it  would  have  been  to  have  passed 
through  a  ministry  of  twenty-five  years  without 
knowledge  of  it. 

And  as  to  the  relation  of  this  truth  to  Christian 
life  :  Is  not  an  unworldly  and  single-eyed  ministry 
the  supreme  need  in  these  days  of  a  materialized 
civilization  and  a  secularized  church  .-'     And  where 


28  HOW  CHRIST   CAME   TO   CHURCH 

shall  the  most  powerful  motive  to  such  a  ministry 
be  found  ?  No  one  who  reads  the  New  Testament 
carefully  can  deny  that  our  Lord  has  lodged  it  in 
the  hope  of  his  second  coming.  We  may  not  see 
how  the  doctrine  should  have  that  effect  ;  but  if  he 
has  so  ordained,  it  will  certainly  be  found  true  in 
actual  experience.  I  recall  a  lecture  which  I  heard 
some  years  since  from  a  scholarly  preacher  in 
which  he  aimed  to  show  that  Christ's  second  com- 
ing so  far  from  being  personal  and  literal  is  a  spir- 
itual and  perpetual  fact ;  that  he  is  coming  all  the 
time  in  civilization,  in  the  diffusion  of  Christianity, 
and  in  the  march  of  human  progress.  He  closed 
his  argument  by  questioning  seriously  what  prac- 
tical influence  upon  Christian  life  the  anticipation 
of  an  event  so  mysterious  and  so  uncertain  as  to 
time  and  circumstance  can  have.  Being  asked  to 
speak,  I  related  a  little  household  incident  which  had 
recently  occurred.  Having  gone  into  the  country 
with  my  children  for  a  few  weeks'  vacation,  I  had 
planned  with  them  many  pleasant  diversions  and 
engagements  for  the  holidays,  when  almost  upon  my 
arrival  I  was  summoned  back  to  the  city  on  an 
important  mission.  In  the  disappointment  of  the 
children  I  said  to  them  :  "  Children,  I  am  going  to 
the  city  to-day.  But  I  shall  soon  be  back  again. 
I  may  come  to-morrow,  or  the  next  day,  or  the 
day  after,  or  possibly  not  till  the  end  of  the  week, 
but  you  may  expect  me  any  time."     It  so  happened 


AND  TO   COME  AGAIN  29 


that  I  was  detained  until  Saturday.  But  when  I 
returned  I  learned  that  in  their  eagerness  to  wel- 
come me  back  the  children,  contrary  to  their  nat- 
ural instincts,  had  insisted  on  having  their  faces 
washed  every  day  and  upon  having  on  their  clean 
clothes  and  going  down  to  meet  me  at  train  time. 
"  A  good  story,"  exclaimed  the  lecturer,  "  but  it  is 
not  an  argument."  Ah,  but  is  it  not  .-•  Human 
life  is  often  found  to  be  the  best  expositor  of 
Scripture.  He  who  put  his  sublimest  doctrines 
into  parables  drawn  from  common  experience  can 
often  be  best  understood  through  some  homely 
household  incident.  He  would  have  his  servants 
always  washed,  and  clothed  in  white  raiment  during 
his  absence.  If  we  believe  that  he  will  not  return 
till  hundreds  of  years  have  elapsed,  we  may  reason- 
ably delay  our  purification  and  make  no  haste  to  put 
on  our  white  raiment.  But  what  if  his  coming  is 
ever  imminent  .-•  Let  this  truth  be  deeply  realized 
and  let  the  parables  in  which  he  affirms  it  become 
household  words  to  us,  and  who  shall  say  that  it 
will  be  without  effect .-'  One  at  least  may  with  all 
humility  testify  to  its  influence  in  shaping  his  min- 
istry. Without  imparting  any  sombre  hue  to 
Christian  life ;  without  "  replacing  glory  with 
gloom  "  in  the  heart  which  should  rejoice  evermore, 
it  is  enough  to  say  that  when  '•  the  solemn  Afar- 
anatha  "  resounds  constantly  through  the  soul,  the 
most    powerful   impulse   is    awakened    toward    our 


30  HOW  CHRIST  CAME  TO   CHURCH 

doing  with  all  diligence  what  he  would  have  us  do, 
and  our  being  with  all  the  heart  what  he  would 
have  us  be. 

"Then  your  dream  came  true,  did  it?"  No; 
rather  it  had  been  true  before  it  was  dreamed,  and 
the  vision  was  a  kind  of  resume  of  a  quarter-century 
ministry.  Here  now  in  the  Holy  Spirit  and  to  come 
again  in  person !  These  were  two  discoveries 
which,  added  to  the  fundamental  truths  already  real- 
ized, brought  unspeakable  blessing  into  one  Chris- 
tian experience.  We  reiterate  emphatically  that 
that  night-vision  has  never  been  regarded  as  any- 
thing supernatural  or  extraordinary  in  itself. 
Nevertheless  there  it  stands  to-day  in  the  hall  of 
memory,  a  dream-parable  as  clean-cut  and  distinctly 
outlined  as  a  marble  statue,  with  the  legend  in- 
wrought in  it,  ^^  Here  to-day  and  to  come  to-morrozv,'^ 
so  that  in  spite  of  knowledge  to  the  contrary  it 
comes  back  ^  again  and  again  as  an  occurrence  of 
actual  history.  Call  it  a  dream  of  mysticism .'' 
What  if  rather  it  might  be  named  a  vision  of  prim- 
itivism .?  The  most  eminent  living  master  of  ec- 
clesiastical history,  Harnack,  photographing  in  a 
single  sentence  the  church  of  the  earliest  cen- 
turies, says :  "  Originally  the  church  zuas  the 
heavenly  Bride  of  Christ,  the  abiding  place  of  the 
Holy  Spirit. "  Does  the  reader  not  see  that  here  is 
the  same  two-fold  conception — Christ  in-resident 
in  the  church   by  the  Spirit ;  and  Christ  expected 


AND   TO   COME   AGAIN  3I 

to  return  in  person  as  the  Bridegroom  for  his 
bride  ?  This  was  the  church  which  moved  with 
such  rapid  and  triumphant  progress  against  ancient 
heathenism.  With  no  power  except  "the  irresist- 
ible might  of  weakness"  ;  with  no  wealth  except  the 
riches  of  glory  inherited  through  her  heavenly  citi- 
zenship ;  refusing  all  compromise  with  the  world, 
declining  all  patronage  of  kings  and  emperors,  she 
nevertheless  went  forth  conquering  and  to  conquer, 
till  in  a  few  years  she  had  undermined  the  whole 
colossal  fabric  of  paganism.  And  might  not  the 
church  of  Christ  do  the  same  to-day  if  she  were 
to  return  to  this  primitive  ideal  ?  and  if  renouncing 
her  dependence  on  human  resources — wealth  and 
power  and  social  prestige,  she  were  to  inscribe 
upon  her  banner  that  ancient  motto :  "  Not  by 
might  nor  by  power,  but  by  my  Spirit,  saith  the 
Lord."  Such  is  the  train  of  questioning  started 
by  a  dream. 


IV 

IF    I    HAD    NOT    COME 

n^O  see  Christ  is  to  see  ourselves  by  startling  con- 
J_  trast.  The  religious  leaders  of  our  Saviour's 
day  were  sinners  before  they  knew  him,  but 
their  sin  was  not  manifested.  *'  If  I  had  not  come 
and  spoken  unto  them  they  had  not  had  sin,"  said 
Jesus,  "but  now  they  have  no  cloak  for  their  sin." 
The  Son  of  God  is  CJiristus  Revelator  before  he  is 
CJiristus  Salvator.  No  truer  testimony  to  this  Mes- 
siahship  was  ever  uttered  than  that  of  the  Samari- 
tan woman  :  "  Come  and  see  a  man  that  told  me  all 
things  that  ever  I  did.      Is  not  this  the  Christ  .'* " 

If  Christ  came  to  church  it  were  a  sacred  privi- 
lege to  entertain  him ;  and  evermore  the  aisles 
which  he  had  trodden  would  be  counted  holy 
ground.  But  are  we  ready  for  the  revelations 
which  his  coming  is  sure  to  bring }  His  glory 
would  certainly  manifest  our  guilt.  Ah,  yes  !  And 
his  lowly  garb  would  also  rebuke  our  costly  attire, 
and  his  deep  humility  would  shame  the  diamonds  on 
jeweled  Christian  fingers.  Does  the  reader  remem- 
ber how,  in  the  dream,  I  saw  him  looking  first  to 
the  one  side  and  then  to  the  other,  as  he  walked  up 
the  aisle  on  that  Sunday  morning,  as  though  silently 
32 


IF   I   HAD   NOT  COME  33 

begging  for  a  seat  ?  Well,  though  there  had  been 
misgivings  and  questionings  about  our  system  of 
pew  rentals,  with  the  sittings  so  graded  that  one 
could  read  the  relative  financial  standing  of  the 
worshipers  by  noting  their  position  in  the  broad 
aisles,  the  matter  had  not  come  home  to  me  as  a 
really  serious  question  till  Christ  came  to  church  on 
that  morning.  Judging  by  his  dress  and  bearing  it 
was  evident  that  were  he  to  become  a  regular  at- 
tendant, he  could  not  afford  the  best  pew  in  the 
house  :  and  this  was  distressing  to  think  of,  since 
I  knew  from  Scripture  that  he  has  long  since  been 
accorded  the  highest  place  in  heaven,  "  angels  and 
authorities  and  powers  being  made  subject  unto 
him."  And  there  were  other  things  in  our  worship 
whose  presence  caused  great  searchings  of  heart,  so 
soon  as  the  Master  of  assemblies  was  recognized  as 
being  there. 

To  translate  the  dream  into  plain  literal  prose : 
When  it  became  a  realized  and  unquestionable  fact 
that,  in  the  person  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  Jesus  is  just 
as  truly  in  the  midst  of  the  church  as  he  once  stood 
in  the  company  of  his  disciples  and  "  showed  them 
his  hands  and  his  feet,"  then  the  whole  house  began 
to  be  searched  as  with  a  lifted  candle.  Yes  !  And 
he  is  among  us  no  longer  "  as  one  that  serveth  "  but 
as  "a  Son  over  his  own  house,  whose  house  are  we 
if  we  hold  fast  the  confidence  and  the  rejoicing  of 
the  hope  firm  unto  the  end."    We  who  worship  and 


34  HOW  CHRIST   CAME  TO  CHURCH 

we  who  conduct  worship  are  simply  his  servants  to 
do  only  what  he  bids  us  do,  and  to  speak  and  act 
by  the  guidance  of  his  Spirit. 

And  judgment  began  with  the  pulpit  as  that  mys- 
terious man  in  yonder  pew  looked  toward  it  and 
listened,  though  he  spoke  not  a  word.  The  theme 
had  been  scriptural  and  evangelical,  as  we  have  al- 
ready said  :  but  with  what  spirit  was  it  presented  ? 
We  have  "  preached  the  gospel  unto  you  in  the  Holy 
Ghost  sent  forth  from  heaven"  (i  Peter  i  :  12,  R.  V.), 
is  almost  the  only  homiletical  direction  found  in 
Scripture.  And  yet  how  deep  and  searching  the 
words  !  We  are  not  to  use  the  Holy  Spirit  in  preach- 
ing :  he  is  to  use  us.  As  the  wind  pours  through  the 
organ  pipes,  causing  their  voice  to  be  heard,  albeit  ac- 
cording to  the  distinctive  tone  and  pitch  of  each,  so 
the  Spirit  speaks  through  each  minister  of  Christ  ac- 
cording to  his  special  gift,  that  the  people  may  hear 
the  word  of  the  Lord.  Is  it  not  the  most  subtle 
temptation  which  comes  to  the  preacher  that  he 
allow  himself  to  be  played  upon  by  some  other 
spirit  than  the  Paraclete .-'  the  popular  desire  for 
eloquence,  for  humor,  for  entertainment,  for  wit,  and 
originality,  moving  him  before  he  is  aware,  to  speak 
for  the  applause  of  men  rather  than  for  the  approval 
of  Christ '}  Not  until  the  presence  in  the  assem- 
bly of  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is  recognized  does 
this  error  come  painfully  home  to  the  conscience. 
We  must  not  enter  into  personal  experience  here, 


IF   I    HAD   NOT  COMR  35 

further  than  to  tell  the  reader  how  repeatedly  we 
have  turned  to  the  following  paragraph  in  the  Jour- 
nal of  John  Woolman,  the  Quaker,  and  read  and 
re-read  it : 

"  One  day,  being  under  a  strong  exercise  of  spirit, 
1  stood  up  and  said  some  words  in  meeting,  but  not 
keeping  close  to  the  divine  opening,  I  said  more 
than  was  required  of  me.  Being  soon  sensible  of 
my  error,  I  was  afflicted  in  mind  some  weeks,  with- 
out any  light  or  comfort  even  to  that  degree  that  I 
could  not  take  satisfaction  in  anything.  I  remem- 
bered God  and  was  troubled,  and  in  the  depth  of  my 
distress  he  had  pity  on  me,  and  sent  the  Comforter. 
.  .  .  Being  thus  humbled  and  disciplined  under  the 
cross,  tny  understanding  became  more  strengthened 
to  distingiiisJi  the  pitre  Spirit  wJiich  moves  inwardly 
7ipon  the  heart,  and  which  taught  me  to  wait  in  si- 
lence, sometimes  many  weeks  together,  until  I  felt 
that  rise  which  prepares  the  creature  to  stand  like 
a  trumpet  through  which  the  Lord  speaks  to  his 
flock." 

Here  is  a  bit  of  heart  biography  so  antique  and 
strange  to  that  spirit  of  unrestrained  utterance 
which  characterizes  our  time,  that  it  almost  needs 
an  interpreter  to  make  it  intelligible ;  but  if  one 
has  ever  considered  deeply  the  requirement  to  speak 
in  the  Spirit,  its  meaning  will  be  very  plain.  Is  it 
not  as  true  of  our  spirits  as  of  our  bodies  that  the 
sev^erest  colds  which  we  contract  come  to  us  from 


36  HOW  CHRIST  CAME  TO   CHURCH 

sitting  in  a  draught  ?  Perhaps  a  current  of  popu- 
lar applause  strikes  us  and  before  we  know  it  our 
fervor  has  become  chilled,  and  then  we  find  our- 
selves preaching  self  instead  of  preaching  Christ, 
giving  more  heed  to  rhetorical  effect  than  to  spirit- 
ual impression,  till  the  Lord  mercifully  humbles  us 
and  shows  us  our  sin.  Well  were  it  if  we  could  some- 
times impose  on  ourselves  the  penance  of  "  silence 
many  weeks  together  "  till  we  should  learn  to  "  keep 
close  to  the  divine  opening." 

What  was  it  then  that  Jesus  in  the  Spirit  seemed 
to  demand  as  he  appeared  in  church  that  morning .'' 
What  but  the  freedom  of  the  place  accorded  to  Him 
who  builded  the  house  and  therefore  "  hath  more 
honor  than  the  house  ?"  Is  it  not  written  that 
"where  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is,  there  is  liberty.-*" 
Not  liberty  for  us  to  do  as  we  will  surely,  but  lib- 
erty for  him  to  do  as  he  will.  And  where  is  the 
Spirit  now  but  in  the  church,  his  only  sanctuary  in 
this  dispensation  ?  Let  there  be  no  restrictions  on  his 
house  then,  lest — if  in  his  revelation  the  Spirit  shall. 

Show  us  that  loving  man 
That  rules  the  courts  of  bliss, 

coming  into  our  assembly  to-day  "poor  and  in  vile 
raiment  " — he  shall  hear  the  word  :  "  Stand  thou 
there  or  sit  here  under  my  footstool ; "  while  to  the 
"man  with  a  gold  ring  and  goodly  apparel"  the 
invitation  is  given  :  "Sit  thou  here  in  a  good  place." 


IF  I   HAD  NOT  COME  37 

And  the  Spirit  must  have  equal  liberty  in  th'e  pul- 
pit, so  that  if  he  choose  to  come  into  the  sermon  in  the 
garb  of  plain  and  homely  speech,  he  may  not  be  re- 
fused a  hearing.  Indeed,  it  was  just  this  accusation 
^bat  came  to  one  unveiled  heart  as  Christ  showed 
nimself  in  yonder  pew — the  conviction  that  he  might 
have  been  fenced  out  of  the  .sermon  many  times 
when  he  had  desired  to  be  heard  therein,  because 
the  discourse  had  been  so  elaborately  pre-arranged 
and  so  exactly  written  out  that  after-thoughts  were 
excluded  though  they  should  come  direct  from 
him. 

Ah,  yes  ;  and  that  was  not  the  deepest  revelation. 
If  Christ  is  present  in  the  pulpit  he  must  think  his 
thoughts  through  us  as  well  as  speak  his  words  by 
our  lips.  And  what  if  these  thoughts,  like  their 
Master,  should  be  to  some  hearers  like  "  a  root  out  of 
a  dry  ground,"  having  no  beauty  that  they  should  de- 
sire them  .''  Art  thou  ready,  oh  preacher,  to  take 
all  the  consequences  of  letting  the  Lord  speak 
through  thee  as  he  will  ?  This  may  sometimes  lead 
thee  out  of  the  beaten  path  of  accepted  opinion 
and  into  ways  that  seem  devious  to  sacred  tradition. 
And  this  in  turn,  though  done  in  humility,  may 
bring  upon  thee  the  accusation  of  pride  of  opinion 
as  though  thou  wert  saying  :  "  I  have  more  under- 
standing than  all  my  teachers."  Does  the  reader 
know  the  story  of  John  Tauler,  the  mystic,  and  of 
that  anointing  and  illumination  of  the  Spirit  which 

F 


38  HOW  CHRIST  CAME  TO  CHURCH 

came  Lo  him  after  he  had  been  for  several  years  an 
eloquent  preacher  ?  He  represents  some  former 
teacher  as  chiding  him  for  departing  from  his  in- 
structions ;  to  which  he  replies  :  "  But  if  the  highest 
Teacher  of  all  truth  come  to  a  man  he  must  be 
empty  and  quit  of  all  else  and  hear  his  voice  only. 
Know  ye  that  when  this  same  Master  cometh  to 
me  he  teaches  me  more  in  one  hour  than  you  and 
all  the  doctors  from  Adam  down."  Bold  words  ! 
Let  us  reverence  our  teachers  and  seek  to  know 
how  much  the  Lord  hath  taught  us  through  them ; 
let  the  words  of  commentators,  who  have  prayed  and 
pored  over  God's  holy  word  to  search  out  precious 
ore  for  us,  be  honored  for  all  the  wealth  that  they 
have  brought  to  us,  knowing  that  only  ^'wlth  all 
saints,'"  can  we  "  comprehend  what  is  the  breadth 
and  length  and  depth  and  height  "  of  the  love  of 
Christ  which  passeth  knowledge.  Nevertheless,  it  is 
good  sometimes  with  Tauler  "to  be  empty  and  quit 
of  all  else  and  hear  his  voice  only."  And  that  it 
might  be  so  is  perhaps  the  reason  why  Christ  came 
to  church  that  day.  The  world  is  full  of  books 
which  demand  our  study  if  we  would  know  the 
mysteries  of  God ;  criticism  has  set  up  its  •'  scien- 
tific method,"  declaring  that  what  in  the  Bible  can- 
not stand  the  test  must  be  discarded.  But  while 
the  vendors  of  learning  are  crying  "  Lo  here,"  and 
"  Lo  there,"  the  Good  Shepherd  speaks,  saying :  "  My 
sheep  hear  my  voice  "  ;  and  he  is  still  in  the  fold  to 


IF  I   HAD  NOT  COME  39 

care  for  his  own,  to  lead  them  into  green  pastures 
where  the  freshest  and  sweetest  truth  is  found  ;  to 
make  them  He  down  by  still  waters  in  which  they 
may  see  his  own  blessed  face  reflected.  Only  let 
not  the  sheep  hear  the  voice  of  strangers  who 
know  not  the  truth  :  let  them  hear  only  Christ. 

He  is  not  present  in  the  church  by  his  Spirit  as 
critic  and  censor  of  the  preacher,  but  as  his  gra- 
cious helper  and  counselor.  Then  give  him  lib- 
erty of  utterance  in  your  sermon,  oh,  man  of 
God !  All  our  acquirements  in  knowledge  of  the 
world,  all  our  mastery  of  style  and  expression  he 
will  use,  if  it  is  surrendered  to  him.  But  this  is 
not  enough.  There  must  be  such  a  line  of  Script- 
ure exposition  in  the  sermon  that  the  Spirit  shall 
have  free  course  to  "  ride  triumphantly  through  it 
in  his  own  chariot,"  the  inspired  word  ;  and  there 
must  be  in  it  such  windows  looking  toward  "the 
divine  opening  "  that  he  may  find  entrance  at  every 
point  with  suggestions,  illuminations,  inspirations. 
Let  those  who  know  bear  witness  whether,  when 
preaching  in  such  a  frame,  thoughts  have  not  come 
in,  far  better  than  any  which  we  had  premeditated, 
lessons,  illustrations,  and  admonitions  fitted  to  the 
occasion  and  to  the  hearer  as  we  could  never  have 
fitted  them  of  ourselves.  "  So  after  many  mortifi- 
cations and  failures  when  going  to  this  warfare  at 
mine  own  charges,"  writes  one,  "  I  found  that  on 
this  day  I  had  been  at  ease  and  had  had  liberty  in 


40  HOW   CHRIST  CAME   TO   CHURCH 

prophesying,  and  withal  had  spoken  better  than  I 
knew,  and  I  said  :  '  Surely  the  Lord  is  in  this  place 
and  I  knew  it  not.'  " 

Give  me  to  see  thee  and  to  feel 

The  mutual  vision  clear  ; 
The  things  unseen  reveal,  reveal, 

And  let  me  know  them  near. 


V 


IN    THY    LIGHT 

WITHIN  the  church  of  God  the  quality  of  actions 
depends  not  altogether  upon  what  they  are  in 
themselves,  but  what  they  are  in  their  relation 
to  Christ.  Many  things,  quite  innocent  in  their 
proper  sphere,  become  profane  when  brought  into 
that  temple  where  God,  the  Holy  Ghost,  has  his 
dwelling  place. 

That  mysterious  stranger  who  awed  me  by  his 
presence  in  church  on  that  morning,  is  no  ascetic. 
It  cannot  be  forgotten  that  he  once  mingled  in  the 
festivities  of  a  marriage  feast  in  Cana,  and  that  he 
drew  about  him  sportive  children  and  took  them  in 
his  arms  and  blessed  them.  "  And  if  Christ  is  such 
a  one,  oh  preacher !  do  not  make  his  church  a 
mournful  place  where  we  must  repress  all  exhibi- 
tions of  natural  joy  and  social  good  cheer,  and  be- 
come as  the  hypocrites  are  who  disfigure  their  faces 
that  they  may  appear  unto  men  to  fast."  Well 
spoken  counsel,  no  doubt !  Yet  Christ  is  still 
Christ ;  and  he  has  never  outgrown  the  print  of  the 
nails.  So  confident  of  this  am  I  that  in  dreaming 
over  my  dream  in  w^aking  hours,  it  always  seemed 
certain  to  me  that,  had  I  come  near  to  him  on  that 

41 


43  HOW   CHRIST   CAME    TO   CHURCH 

memorable  Sabbath  morning,  I  should  have  dis- 
cerned the  marks  of  his  crucifixion  in  his  body. 
What  John  the  apostle  is  represented  as  saying  of 
our  Lord  still  holds  true : 

Cheerful  he  was  to  us  : 
But  let  me  tell  you,  sons,  he  was  within 
A  pensive  man,  and  always  had  a  load 
Upon  his  spirits. 

A  convivial  Christ  is  not  quite  the  personage 
that  rises  up  before  us  in  the  prophets  and  in  the 
Gospels.  And  yet  when  one  observes  the  pleasant 
devices  for  introducing  men  to  him,  which  abound 
in  the  modern  church — the  music,  the  feasts,  the 
festivals,  and  the  entertainments — it  would  seem  as 
though  this  were  a  very  prevalent  conception.  No ! 
Jesus  is  the  serious  Christ,  the  faithful  and  true 
witness  who  will  never  cover  up  his  scars  in  order 
to  win  disciples.  Our  latter  day  Christianity  would 
not  abolish  the  cross  indeed,  but  it  seeks  so  to  fes- 
toon it  with  flowers,  that  the  offense  thereof  may 
be  hidden  out  of  sight.  If  Christ  crucified  is  "  unto 
the  Greeks  foolishness,"  why  not  first  present  him 
in  some  other  character  if  any  of  this  cultured  peo- 
ple are  among  the  hearers  ?  But  does  not  the 
reader  remember  that  when  "  certain  Greeks  "  came 
to  worship  at  the  feast,  saying  "we  would  see 
Jesus,"  the  first  recorded  word  which  the  Saviour 
spoke  to  them  was  :  '*  Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  you, 


IN   THY    LIGHT  43 


Except  a  corn  of  wheat  fall  into  the  ground  and 
die  it  abideth  alone ;  but  if  it  die  it  bringeth  forth 
much  fruit,"  thus  presenting  the  whole  deep  doc- 
trine of  the  cross  in  a  single  condensed  parable  ? 
Never  has,  there  been  such  a  laborious  attempt  to 
popularize  Christ  as  in  the  closing  years  of  this 
nineteenth  century.  But  if  the  Saviour  were  tc 
come  to  church  and  reveal  himself  to  those  who 
have  so  mistaken  his  identity,  we  can  well  think  of 
his  saying  :  "  Behold  my  hands  and  my  feet  ///<?/  // 
is  I  viyscif ;  handle  me  and  see."  Ah,  yes!  here 
are  the  tokens  by  which  we  recognize  his  real  per- 
sonality. "  I  perceive  that  Christ  suffered  only  his 
wounds  to  be  touched  after  he  had  risen  from  the 
dead,"  says  Pascal,  "as  though  he  would  teach  us 
that  henceforth  we  can  be  united  to  him  only 
through  his  sufferings." 

But  it  is  Christ  in  the  Spirit  not  Christ  in  the 
flesh  whom  we  recognize  as  dwelling  in  the  church 
now ;  and  it  is  the  church  as  a  spiritual  temple 
builded  of  living  stones,  not  a  material  structure 
fashioned  of  wood  or  granite  and  consecrated  to  the 
Lord  of  which  we  are  now  speaking.  Yes,  and  out 
of  this  conception  came  the  heart-searching  and  the 
house-searching  of  which  we  write. 

I  have  told  the  reader  how  having  in  vision  recog- 
nized Christ  as.  present  on  that  morning,  an  intense 
anxiety  seized  me  as  to  whether  everything  in  the 
ordering  of  his  house  was  as  he  would  have  it. 


44  HOW   CHRIST   CAME   TO    CHURCH 

There  was  a  choir  in  yonder  gallery,  employed  at 
an  expense  of  nearly  three  thousand  dollars,  to  sing 
the  praises  of  God  in  his  church.  Some  of  the 
number  were  believers  ;  the  larger  part  made  no 
profession  of  discipleship,  and  some  were  confessed 
disbelievers.  But  they  had  fine  voices,  therefore 
were  they  there.  No  word  of  criticism  can  be 
passed  upon  them,  since  they  were  serving 
solely  by  the  appointment  of  the  church.  But 
when  now  the  presence  of  Christ  by  the  Holy 
Ghost  was  realized,  the  minister  of  the  flock  began 
to  have  pangs  of  indescribable  misgiving  about  this 
way  of  administering  the  service  of  song.  Had  it 
not  been  a  method  long  in  vogue  ?  Yes.  And  did 
it  not  conform  to  the  general  usage  of  Christian 
congregations  ?  Yes.  Then  why  have  scruples 
about  it  ?  There  might  have  been  none  but  for  the 
presence  of  that  revered  man  from  heaven.  But 
Christ  had  come  to  church  :  "  and  who  may  abide 
the  day  of  his  coming  ?  and  who  shall  stand  when 
he  appeareth  }  for  he  is  like  a  refiner's  fire  and  like 
fuller's  soap."  And  the  burning  of  that  fire  began 
from  that  day,  and  could  never  thenceforth  be 
quenched  :  and  the  cleansing  must  now  go  on  to 
the  end. 

Does  the  Scripture  deal  in  poetry  or  in  fact  when 
it  says  to  the  church,  the  body  of  believers  :  "  Know 
ye  not  that  ye  are  the  temple  of  God  and  that  the 
Spirit  of  God  dvvelleth  in  you?"      Into  the  inner 


IN  THY  LIGHT  45 


court  of  that  Jewish  temple  went  the  high  priest 
alone,  once  every  year,  "not  zvithout  bloody  Not 
the  less  rigidly  was  it  required  of  the  common 
priests  who  "  went  into  the  first  tabernacle,  accom- 
plishing the  service  of  God,"  that  they  should  come 
first  to  the  brazen  altar  of  sacrifice  and  then  to  the 
layer  of  cleansing  in  order  to  be  qualified  for  their 
ministry.  And  these  things  happened  for  ensam- 
ples  unto  us.  The  types  are  as  rigid  and  unchange- 
able in  their  teaching  as  mathematics.  The  altar 
and  the  laver ;  the  blood  and  the  water:  our  justi- 
fication by  the  cross  and  our  sanctification  by  the 
Spirit — these  two  are  absolutely  prerequisite  and 
their  order  is  forever  fixed.  David  under  the  old 
covenant  sought  for  the  true  qualification  of  an  ac- 
ceptable worshiper  when  he  prayed  :  "  Pitrge  me 
tuith  hyssop  and  I  shall  be  clean  ;  wash  me  and  I 
shall  be  zuhiter  than  snoiv^  It  was  first  the  blood 
and  then  the  water.  The  exhortation  to  the  wor- 
shiper under  the  new  covenant  is  precisely  the 
same  :  "  Let  us  draw  near,  .  .  .  having  our  hearts 
spiinkled  from  an  evil  conscience  and  having 
our  bodies  mashed  with  pure  water''  (Heb.  ic  :  22). 
First  cleansing  by  the  blood,  then  sanctification  by 
the  Spirit. 

The  congregation  of  the  regenerate  church  now 
constitutes  the  earthly  priesthood  under  Christ  our 
great  High  Priest.  He  could  not  enter  into  the 
holiest  in  heaven  except  by  his  own  blood  ;  no  more 


46  HOW   CHRIST   CAME   TO   CHURCH 

can  any  one  on  earth  perform  the  smallest  service 
in  the  worship  of  his  house — that  "  holy  temple  in 
the  Lord,  biiilded  together  for  a  habitation  of  God 
through  the  Spirit" — who  has  not  been  justified  by 
the  blood  of  Christ.  This  was  the  deep  and  abid- 
ing conviction  which  seized  one  minister  of  Christ 
as  his  eyes  were  opened  by  the  coming  of  the  Lord 
to  search  his  sanctuary.  And  then  followed  unut- 
terable distress  of  conscience  about  this  whole 
grave  question.  There  were  those  singers  standing 
above  the  communion  table,  leading  a  divinely 
appointed  ministry  of  song.  And  yet  the  question 
had  never  been  asked  whether  they  had  come  under 
the  cleansing  of  the  blood  of  Christ  and  the  renew- 
ing of  the  Holy  Spirit  ;  only  whether  they  had  fine 
voices,  well  trained  and  harmonious.  The  situation 
brought  such  burden  of  soul  that  sometimes  the 
whole  service— the  prayer,  the  praise,  the  ser- 
mon— was  gone  through  with  under  indescribable 
constraint  and  spiritual  repression.  When  the 
mind  of  Christ  was  sought  for  in  the  matter,  his 
voice  was  heard  saying :  "  God  is  a  Spirit,  and  they 
that  worship  him  imist  ivorship  Jiiin  in  spirit  and 
in  tr2itJiy  Half  the  stanzas  sung  in  an  ordinary 
service  are  such  that  unconverted  persons  could 
not  possibly  sing  them  in  truth,  and  none  of  them 
could  they  sing  in  "the  Spirit."  Then  came  the 
habit  of  searching  for  hymns  more  neutral  and  more 
remote  from  Christian  experience,  lest  I  should  be 


IN   THY   LIGHT  47 


the  occasion  of  causing  any  to  speak  falsely  in  God's 
presence.  And  more  than  all,  came  what  may  be 
called  a  corporate  conviction,  a  taking  of  blame  on 
behalf  of  the  whole  church  concerning  this  mattei'. 
For  plainly  the  sin  seemed  nothing  else  than 
simony.  The  Lord  has  appointed  the  Holy  Ghost 
to  be  the  inspirer  and  director  of  sacred  song  in  his 
temple :  "  Be  filled  with  the  Spirit,  speaking  one  to 
another  in  psalms  and  hymns  and  spiritual  songs, 
singing  and  making  melody  with  your  heart  to  the 
Lord  "  (Eph.  5  :  1 8,  19,  R.  V.).  This  delight  of  sacred 
song  is  greatly  coveted  ;  and  they  who  have  wealth 
say,  "  We  will  give  you  three  thousand  dollars  that 
you  may  buy  this  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  may 
bring  in  singing  men  and  singing  women,  the  best 
that  can  be  procured,  that  the  attractions  of  our 
sanctuary  may  not  be  a  whit  behind  the  chiefest  in 
all  the  city."  And  it  seemed  to  me  that  the  voice 
of  the  Spirit  concerning  it  all  would  be :  "  Thy 
money  perish  with  thee,  because  thou  hast  thought 
that  the  gift  of  God  may  be  purchased  with 
money." 

Then  in  thought  the  vision  came  back,  and 
yonder  silent  Christ  seemed  to  speak :  "  Reach 
hither  thy  finger  and  behold  my  hands  ;  and  reach 
hither  thy  hand  and  thrust  it  into  my  side."  And 
while  we  wondered  he  reasoned  with  us,  saying : 
"  Who  think  ye  that  I  am,  oh,  my  brethren  ? 
And   wherefore  came  I   unto  that  hour  when  my 


48  HOW   CHRIST   CAME   TO   CHURCH 

soul  was  exceeding  sorrowful,  even  unto  death  ? " 
Was  it  that  you  might  live  delicately  and  bring  in 
the  minstrels  to  perform  before  you  in  my  house .'' 
Behold  they  that  live  delicately  are  in  king's  courts  ; 
but  ye  are  they  whom  I  have  appointed  to  bear  the 
cross  and  to  fill  up  that  which  is  behind  of  the 
afflictions  of  Christ  for  his  body's  sake,  which  is  the 
church.  "  The  sacrifice  of  praise,  even  the  fruit  of 
the  lips,'"  have  I  enjoined  upon  you;  but  the  luxury 
of  sumptuous  music,  who  has  required  it  at  your 
hands  ?  Wherefore  do  ye  spend  your  money  for 
that  which  is  not  bread,  when  millions  are  perishing 
for  the  bread  of  life  which  I  have  commanded  you 
to  bring  them  ;  and  I  still  wait  to  see  of  the  travail 
of  -my  soul  and  be  satisfied  ? 

As  I  heard  all  this  the  whole  heart  became  sick. 
I  thought  of  churches  which  were  bestowing  ten 
times,  and  in  some  instances  fifty  times  as  much 
for  artistic  music  as  they  contributed  to  foreign 
missions,  and  I  said  :  "  We  are  believers  by  the 
cleansing  of  the  blood  and  by  the  indwelling  of  the 
Spirit ;  have  been  constituted  '  a  spiritual  house,  aji 
holy  priesthood  to  offer  up  spiritual  sacrifices  '  ;  but 
instead  of  using  our  ministry  in  humble  dependence 
on  the  Holy  Ghost,  we  have  brought  up  minstrels 
from  Egypt,  that  '  music  with  its  voluptuous  swell ' 
may  take  the  place  of  that  chastened,  self-denying, 
holy  song  which  no  man  can  learn  but  they  that 
have  been  redeemed." 


IN  THY  LIGHT  49 


And  out  of  this  storm  of  questioning  and  misgiv- 
ing, and  all  this  deep  inquisition  of  conscience,  there 
arose  at  last  one  of  the  calmest,  raaturest,  and  most 
unconquerable  convictions  of  my  life.  I  could 
never  in  any  circumstance  accept  a  ministry  where 
the  worship  appointed  by  God  has  been  so  perverted 
by  men.  Not  in  the  language  of  metaphor  or  of 
poetry,  but  in  the  words  of  literal  truth  I  hear  God 
saying  :  "  For  the  temple  of  God  is  holy,  zvhich  tem- 
ple ye  are^  When  I  can  consent  to  have  the  com- 
munion table  moved  out  into  the  court  of  the  Gen- 
tiles, and  call  upon  the  thoughtless  and  unconverted 
to  receive  the  sacred  elements  lying  thereon,  then 
I  may  see  the  propriety  of  bringing  a  choir  of  unre- 
generated  musical  artists  into  the  Holy  of  Holies  of 
the  church,  and  of  committing  to  their  direction 
the  service  of  song.  This  conviction  rests  neither 
upon  prejudice  nor  preference,  but  upon  the  fixed 
assurance  that  in  the  house  of  God  I  am  servant, 
not  the  master,  and  that  I  have  no  alternative  but 
to  comply  strictly  with  the  divine  arrangements  of 
the  church  fixed  by  the  Lord  himself. 

When  I  had  written  all  this  I  imagined  I  heard 
some  reader  exclaiming  :  "  Is  not  this  a  Pharisee  of 
the  Pharisees  risen  up  within  the  Christian  church, 
and  tithing  the  mint,  anise,  and  cummin  of  religious 
worship.''  Is  there  really  any  ground  for  his  scru- 
ples, or  anything  practical  in  his  suggestions  ? " 
Let  this  appear  in  later  chapters. 

G 


VI 

THE   TEMPLE    OF    GOD    IS    HOLY 

I  RECALL  a  sermon  by  President  Wayland, 
preached  while  I  was  a  student,  in  which  he 
spoke  thus,  in  brief,  about  amusements  :  "  You 
ask  me  if  it  is  sinful  for  Christians  to  play  cards. 
Well,  you  remember  that  the  Roman  soldiers  threw 
dice  and  cast  lots  while  our  Saviour  was  dying  on  the 
cross.  But  you  as  his  disciples,  had  you  been  present, 
could  not  have  taken  part  in  that  game  of  chance. 
And  why  should  you  do  so  now  before  whose  eyes 
Jesus  Christ  hath  been  evidently  set  forth  crucified 
among  you .-'  " 

It  was  a  practical  and  pointed  way  of  setting 
forth  a  great  principle.  The  church,  which  has 
journeyed  on  for  nearly  nineteen  hundred  years,  has 
never  left  the  crucified  Christ  behind.  I  make  no 
reference  here  to  a  material  sanctuary  with  the  cross 
and  passion, — symbols  wrought  into  its  ecclesiastical 
irchitecture, — but  to  that  "  holy  temple  in  the  Lord" 
in  which  we  are  "  builded  together  for  a  habitation 
of  God  through  the  Spirit."  It  is  in  this  house  that 
we  stand  during  this  entire  discussion.  As  we  mark 
on  every  hand  its  divine  architecture,  we  observe 
that  the  cross  is  inwrought  with  each  article  of  its 
50 


THE  TEMPLE  OF  GOD  IS  HOLY  5I 


furniture.  In  the  ordinance  through  which  we 
enter  the  temple,  we  are  '^baptized  into  his  dcatJi^ 
In  the  communion  which  we  keep  perpetually  within 
its  courts,  we  '^  do  sJioiv  tlie  Lord's  death  till  he  come!' 
In  the  pulpit  where  the  gospel  is  proclaimed,  ^^  we 
preacJi  Christ  crucified,  the  power  of  God  and  the 
wisdom  of  God."  In  the  songs  which  we  sing  we 
offer  "  the  sacrifice  of  praise  to  God  continually,  that 
is  the  fruit  of  our  lips."  Thus  the  crucified  One  is 
visible  in  every  service  and  sacrament  of  his  temple. 
That  solemn  stranger  in  yonder  pew  did  not  "  cry 
nor  lift  up  nor  cause  his  voice  to  be  heard"  in  his 
temple  ;  for  in  each  act  of  worship  he  had  ordained 
that  his  word  should  be  heard,  saying  :  "  I  am  he 
that  liveth  and  was  dead,  and  behold  I  am  alive  for 
evermore." 

Once  standing  within  this  holy  temple  of  the 
church  a  great  apostle  wept  because  "  the  enemies 
of  the  cross  of  Christ "  had  come  in  thither  (Phil. 
3:18,  19).  Who  were  they.''  Heretics,  who  had  de- 
nied the  atonement  and  effaced  Christ  crucified 
from  their  creed .''  Apostates,  who  by  their  fall 
from  grace  had  "  crucified  the  Son  of  God  afresh  .-*  " 
No  !  They  were  worldlings  who  had  defiled  the 
temple  by  their  unseemly  self-indulgences.  And 
has  the  Lord  no  occasion  to  weep  as  he  visits  his 
church  to-da}^ .''  And  do  his  five  bleeding  wounds 
never  plead  in  silent  protest  against  what  is  done 
therein .''     I  speak  not  of  the  one  congregation  into 


52  HOW  CHRIST  CAME  TO   CHURCH 

which  he  came  in  vision  on  that  memorable  Sabbath 
morning.  The  encroachments  of  secularism  had 
advanced  quite  far  enough  therein  to  give  occasion 
for  sincere  regret  at  their  remembrance.  But  they 
were  slight  in  comparison  with  what  we  have  wit- 
nessed elsewhere. 

"  Know  ye  not  that  ye  are  the  temple  of  God,  and 
that  the  Spirit  of  God  dwelleth  in  you  ?  If  any 
man  defile  the  temple  of  God,  him  shall  God  destroy ; 
for  the  temple  of  God  is  holy,  zuhich  tejnple  ye  are'' 
(i  Cor.  3:16,  17).  We  do  not  judge  that  the  de- 
filement here  mentioned  is  that  of  personal  impurity, 
in  which  one  sins  against  his  own  body  by  the  in- 
dulgence of  fleshly  lusts  and  passions.  Though  the 
words  are  often  applied  in  this  way  there  seems  to 
be  no  good  ground  for  so  construing  them.  It  is 
the  corporate  body  which  is  spoken  of,  not  the  indi- 
vidual body  ;  and  to  defile  the  temple  of  God  is  to 
profane  that  temple  by  bringing  into  its  precincts 
idolatrous  rites  and  ceremonies,  secular  and  carnal 
indulgences,  unsanctified  amusements  and  frivolous 
entertainments  to  minister  to  "  the  lusts  of  the  eyes, 
the  lusts  of  the  flesh,  and  the  pride  of  life."  Here 
we  shall  refer  only  to  what  we  know  as  being  car- 
ried on  within  the  circle  of  Protestant  and  evangel- 
ical churches,  confessing  as  we  do  so,  that  it  is  a 
shame  even  to  speak  of  the  things  done  by  them  in 
public.  Nevertheless  we  must  look  at  the  unseemly 
catalogue  :     Performers  brought  from  the  opera  or 


THE  TEMPLE  OF  GOD  IS  HOLY  53 

from  the  theatre  on  Sunday  to  regale  the  ears  of  the 
church  with  some  flighty  song  of  artistic  musical 
display ;  a  star  violinist  dressed  in  the  style  of  his 
profession,  preparing  the  way  for  the  sermon  by  a 
brilliant  and  fantastic  solo ;  a  curtain  drawn  across 
the  pulpit  platform  on  a  week-night,  footlights  and 
scenery  brought  from  the  play-house,  and  a  drama 
enacted  by  the  young  people  of  the  church,  ending 
with  a  dance  by  the  gayly  dressed  children  ;  a  comic 
reader  filling  the  pulpit  on  Monday  evening,  deliv- 
ering a  caricature  sermon  amid  the  convulsive  laugh- 
ter and  hand-clapping  of  the  Christians  present. 
These  are  but  a  few  acts  in  the  comedy  which  the 
god  of  this  world  is  performing  weekly  in  church 
assemblies.  Taken  with  the  dramatic  readings,  lit- 
erary entertainments,  amateur  theatricals,  fairs, 
frolics,  festivals,  and  lotteries,  the  story  is  enough  to 
make  the  angels  of  the  churches  blush,  and  to  give 
fresh  occasion  for  an  apostle's  tears  while  he  utters 
the  solemn  verdict :  "  For  many  walk  of  whom  I  have 
told  you  often  and  now  tell  you  even  weeping,  that 
they  are  the  enemies  of  the  cross  of  Christ ;  whose 
end  is  destruction,  whose  God  is  their  belly,  and 
whose  glory  is  their  shame,  who  mind  earthly  things." 
It  is  well  known  that  certain  insects  conceal  their 
presence  by  assuming  the  color  of  the  tree  or  leaf 
on  which  they  prey.  Church  amusements  are  simply 
parasites  hiding  under  a  religious  exterior,  while  they 
eat  out  the  life  of  Christianity.      Sacred  concerts. 


54  HOW   CHRIST   CAME   TO   CHURCH 

church  fairs,  ecclesiastical  entertainments — how  well 
the  words  sound  in  the  ears  of  the  unwary.  But 
when  the  Lord  appeared  walking  among  the  golden 
candlesticks  with  countenance  like  the  sun  shining 
in  his  strength,  their  real  inwardness  was  instantly 
revealed.  In  the  midst  of  the  church  entertain- 
ments, going  on  for  the  avowed  purpose  of  winning 
the  world  into  friendship  with  Christians  ;  on  the 
walls  of  the  same  church,  inscribed  in  letters  of  gold, 
were  texts  of  Scripture  which  the  "  dim  religious 
light "  had  so  obscured  that  few  seem  to  have  read 
them  :  "  If  any  man  love  the  world,  the  love  of  the 
Father  is  not  in  hi^n,''  and  "  Knozv  ye  not  that  the 
friendship  of  the  world  is  etiniity  to  God?  "  When 
the  Lord  came  in,  these  inscriptions  began  to  gleam 
out  with  such  a  dazzling  brightness  as  the  window 
panes  sometimes  exhibit  under  the  rays  of  the  set- 
ting sun.  Then  a  great  horror  of  being  implicated 
in  so-called  sacred  amusements  seized  upon  one 
who  read  these  burning  texts,  so  that  once  on  enter- 
ing a  church  where  such  frivolities  were  going  on, 
he  hastened  from  the  house  as  the  aged  Apostle 
John  in  Ephesus  is  said  to  have  fled  from  the  bath 
on  discovering  that  the  heretic  Cerinthus  was 
present. 

If  any  shall  name  such  scruples  phariseeism  or 
religious  prudery,  then  come  and  let  us  reason  to- 
gether. Go  into  a  Roman  Catholic  church  and 
witness  the  services  which  are  carried  on  there,  and 


THE  TEMPLE  OF  GOD  IS  HOLY  55 


the  question  will  at  once  arise,  How  is  it  possible 
that  the  simple  spiritual  worship  of  the  primitive 
church  could  have  degenerated  into  such  a  mass  of 
grotesque  ceremonials  '^x\d  idolatrous  abominations 
as  are  here  exhibited  ?  The  answer  is  easily  found 
on  looking  into  his*'Ory.  For  a  while  the  church 
was  content  to  occ*'(py  the  place  of  holy  separation 
from  the  world  appointed  her  by  the  Lord — witness- 
ing for  Christ,  working  for  Christ,  waiting  for  Christ. 
This  austere  attitude  gave  offense  to  the  heathen 
who  had  often  desired  to  be  friendly  with  the  Chris- 
tians, and  were  ready  to  tolerate  their  religion  if  only 
they  would  accord  some  slight  token  of  respect  to 
their  own  deities — a  gesture  of  reverence  or  a  grain 
of  incense.  But  all  this  was  rigidly  withheld  by  the 
disciples  of  Christ.  Not  the  smallest  concession 
would  they  make  to  pagan  customs  ;  not  a  shred 
would  they  incorporate  into  their  worship  from  the 
heathen  ceremonials  ;  and  so  long  as  they  main- 
tained this  spirit,  they  went  forth  conquering  and  to 
conquer. 

Then,  upon  the  enthronement  of  Constantine.  the 
sentiment  gradually  changed,  and  the  notion  grew 
up  that  in  order  to  convert  the  heathen  it  was  nec- 
essary to  conciliate  them  by  conforming  somewhat 
to  their  customs.  The  great  Augustine  also  fell 
under  this  delusion,  and  gave  his  countenance  to  the 
engrafting  into  Christian  worship  of  usages  bor- 
rowed from  the  heathen.     He  said  :  "  When  peace 


56  HOW   CHRIST   CAME   TO   CHURCH 

was  made  (between  the  emperors  of  Rome  and  the 
church)  the  crowd  of  Gentiles  who  were  anxious  to 
embrace  Christianity  were  deterred  by  this,  that 
whereas  they  had  been  accustomed  to  pass  the  holi- 
days in  drunkenness  and  feasting  before  their  idols, 
they  could  not  easily  consent  to  forego  these  most 
pernicious  yet  ancient  pleasures.  //  seemed  good 
then  to  o?ir  leaders  to  favor  this  part  of  their  zveak- 
ness,  and  for  those  festivals  which  they  had  relin- 
quished, to  substitute  others  in  honor  of  the  holy 
martyrs,  which  they  might  celebrate  with  similar 
luxury,  though  not  with  the  same  impiety^"  Here 
is  the  door  opened  through  which  the  whole  troop 
of  abominations  entered ^saint  worship,  idol  wor- 
ship, virgin  worship — till  in  an  incredibly  short 
time  the  church,  which  had  gone  forth  to  Christianize 
the  heathen,  was  found  to  have  become  herself  com- 
pletely paganized. 

The  nineteenth  century  is  presenting  almost  the 
exact  facsimile  of  the  fourth  century  in  this  partic- 
ular. The  notion  having  grown  up  that  we  must 
entertain  men  in  order  to  win  them  to  Christ,  every 
invention  for  world-pleasing  which  human  ingenuity 
can  devise  has  been  brought  forward  till  the  churches 
in  multitudes  of  instances  have  been  turned  into 
play-houses,  with  theatre-boards  announcing  the 
courses  for  the  gay  season  boldly  set  up  at  the 
doors  ;  and  there  is  hardly  a  carnal  amusement  that 

1  Aug.  "  Epist.",  p.  29. 


THE  TEMPLE  OF  GOD  IS   HOLY  57 

can  be  named,  from  billiards  to  dancing,  which  does 
not  now  find  a  nesting-place  in  Christian  sanctuaries. 
Is  it  then  phariseeism  or  pessimism  to  sound  the 
note  of  alarm  and  to  predict  that  at  the  present 
fearful  rate  of  progress,  the  close  of  this  decade 
may  see  the  Protestant  church  as  completely  assim- 
ilated to  nineteenth  century  secularism  as  the  Ro- 
man Catholic  church  was  assimilated  to  fourth  cen- 
tury paganism  ? 

And  this  is  not  all :  the  temple  has  been  defiled. 
"  For  what  agreement  hath  the  temple  of  God  with 
idols  ;  for  ye  are  the  temple  of  God  :  as  God  hath 
said,  I  will  dwell  in  them  and  walk  in  them,  and  I 
will  be  their  God  and  they  shall  be  my  people." 
Anything  thrust  into  God's  place  is  an  idol.  When, 
in  2  Thess.  2:3,4,  the  culmination  of  the  predicted 
apostasy  is  described,  it  is  said  of  "the  man  of  sin," 
that  "He  as  God  sitteth  in  the  temple  of  God,  show- 
ing himself  that  he  is  God."  Here,  I  believe,  we 
have  a  picture  of  the  pope,  thrusting  himself  into 
the  seat  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  assuming  the  title  of 
"Vicar  of  Christ,"  which  belongs  only  to  that  "other 
Paraclete"  whom  Jesus  promised  to  send  down  to 
fill  his  place  during  his  absence.  This  sin  of  un- 
seating the  Holy  Ghost  in  his  own  temple  is  so  blas- 
phemous that  its  author  has  no  forgiveness,  but  is 
doomed  to  be  destroyed  "  by  the  brightness  of 
Christ's  coming."  And  is  there  no  danger  that 
Protestantism  may  fall  under  the  same  guilt  .-*   What 


58  HOW  CHRIST   CAME   TO   CHURCH 

if  the  Holy  Spirit  is  ejected  from  the  choir,  and  his 
office  as  inspirer  of  sacred  song  committed  to  a 
quartette  of  unconverted  musical  artists  ?  What  if 
he  be  unseated  from  the  pulpit  and  the  intellectual 
discourse  substituted  for  that  preaching  of  the  gos- 
pel "  ivith  the  Holy  Ghost  sent  down  from  heaven'' 
which  God  has  appointed  ?  What  if  he  be  set  aside 
from  the  administration  of  the  church,  so  that,  for 
example,  the  settling  of  a  pastor  shall  be  made  to 
turn  on  the  votes  of  unconverted  men  called  "  the 
society,"  when  the  Lord  has  spoken  about  "the 
flock  of  God  over  which  the  Holy  Ghost  hath  made 
you  overseers''  ?  Is  there  no  peril  that  by  this  con- 
stant unseating  of  the  Spirit  he  may  be  finally  driven 
from  his  sanctuary,  repeating  as  he  retires  the  sol- 
emn lament  of  the  Saviour  :  "  Behold  your  house  is 
left  unto  you  desolate  ?  "  Wonderful  indeed  is  the 
patience  of  the  Comforter  !  As  the  Lord  Christ, 
when  "  there  was  no  room  for  him  in  the  inn,"  con- 
descended to  lie  in  a  manger,  so  the  Lord,  the  Spirit, 
when  crowded  out  of  pulpit,  and  choir,  and  pew,  and 
seat  of  authority,  may  retire  into  some  obscure  re- 
treat of  his  church, — heart  of  humble  saint  or  home 
of  hidden  disciple, — waiting  patiently  to  be  invited 
back  to  his  rightful  throne. 

That  he  may,  and  sometimes  does,  finally  with 
draw  from  his  temple,  there  can  be  no  question. 
Do  we  not  know  of  churches  once  fervently  evan- 
gelical which  are  now  lying  under  the  doom  of  de- 


THE  TEMPLE   OF   GOD   IS   HOLY  59 

sertion  by  the  Spirit  ?  The  writer  thinks,  with  all 
charity,  that  he  has  seen  such  ;  churches  upon  which 
the  Lord's  sentence  has  gone  forth,  "Thou  hast  a 
name  that  thou  livest  and  art  dead."  The  body 
may  still  remain  indeed,  the  creeds  and  Confessions 
may  continue  intact,  and  the  forms  of  worship  may 
even  be  multiplied  and  vastly  "enriched"  as  the 
years  go  on,  but  these  outward  forms  are  only  memo- 
rials of  a  departed  glory,  like  the  death-mask  which 
preserves  the  mold  of  features  which  have  long  since 
crumbled  into  dust. 

If  any  reader  thinks  that  what  we  are  saying  is 
simply  "exposition,"  we  have  to  add  that  it  is  this 
and  more  ;  it  is  experience,  and  every  word  is  con- 
firmed in  the  mouth  of  heart-witnesses  and  con- 
science-witnesses and  church-witnesses.  When  an 
evangelist  goes  to  a  congregation  to  hold  special 
services,  and  finds  after  a  day  or  two  that  the  whole 
membership  is  in  a  state  of  suspended  animation, 
let  him  take  a  candle,  as  the  Hebrews  did  on  the  eve 
of  Passover,  and  let  him  diligently  search  the  house 
for  leaven.  Let  him  go  into  the  choir  gallery  and 
learn  whether  a  quartette  of  unsanctified  musicians 
is  seated  there  ;  let  him  then  go  into  the  vestry  and 
inquire  whether  the  winter's  programme  of  church 
amusements  is  still  proceeding.  He  may  go  far- 
ther, but  the  writer  bears  solemn  witness  that  even 
these  two  obstructions  have  been  found  sufficient  to 
bar  the  way  to  all  success  in  revival  effort.     It  is 


6o  HOW  CHRIST   CAME   TO   CHURCH 

written  and  cannot,  without  infinite  peril,  be  forgot- 
ten, that  the  church  is  "  an  holy  temple  in  the  Lord"  ; 
that  it  is  "  bnilded  togctJier  for  an  habitation  of  God 
in  the  Spirit"  ;  that  "  the  Lord  is  that  Spirit"  gov- 
erning and  administering  therein  with  sovereign 
authority,  and  that  only  "  where  the  Spirit  of  the 
Lord  is  there  is  liberty."  Except  he  has  sanctified 
instruments  in  every  part  of  the  house,  he  cannot 
move  through  the  assemblies  in  victorious  freedom 
of  service. 

Yet,  so  inveterate  is  the  tendency  to  turn  away 
from  the  Spirit  and  to  listen  to  other  voices,  that 
*'He  that  hath  the  seven  Spirits  of  God,"  warns  his 
church  from  heaven  in  a  seven-fold  admonition  re- 
peated at  the  end  of  each  succeeding  chapter  in  her 
seven-fold  apocalyptic  history  :  "  He  that  hath  an 
ear  let  him  hear  what  the  Spirit  saith  unto  the 
churches." 


VII 


CLEANSING    THE    TEMPLE 

WHY  not  withdraw  from  the  church  which  has 
become  thus  secularized  and  desecrated  ?  To 
which  we  reply  emphatically :  Until  the  Holy 
Spirit  withdraws  we  are  not  called  upon  to  do  so. 
And  he  is  infinitely  patient,  abiding  still  in  his  house 
so  long  as  there  are  two  or  three  who  gather  in  Christ's 
name  to  constitute  a  tcmplmn  in  teniplo,  a.  sanctuary 
within  a  sanctuary,  where  he  may  find  a  home. 

What  the  lungs  are  to  the  air  the  church  is  to 
the  Holy  Spirit  ;  and  each  individual  believer  is 
like  a  cell  in  those  lungs.  If  every  cell  is  open  and 
unobstructed  the  whole  body  is  full  of  light  ;  but 
if  through  a  sudden  cold,  congestion  sets  in,  so 
that  the  larger  number  of  these  cells  are  closed, 
then  the  entire  burden  of  breathing  is  thrown 
upon  the  few  which  remain  unobstructed.  With  re- 
doubled activity  these  now  inhale  and  exhale  the 
air,  till  convalescence  shall  return.  So  we  strongly 
believe  that  a  few  Spirit-filled  disciples  are  suf- 
ficient to  save  a  church  ;  that  the  Holy  Ghost,  act- 
ing through  these,  can  and  does  bring  back  recovery 
and  health  to  the  entire  body. 

I   saw  no   whip  of  small    cords   in  the  hands  of 

H  6i 


62  HOW  CHRIST   CAME   TO   CHURCH 

that  pilgrim-Christ  who  turned  aside  for  a  moment 
to  visit  our  sanctuary  on  that  ever-remembered 
Lord's  Day  morning.  The  time  has  not  yet  come 
for  judging  and  punishing  those  who  defile  the  tem- 
ple of  God.  On  the  contrary,  it  seems  as  though 
I  heard  that  gracious  stranger  say :  "  Behold,  I 
stand  at  the  door,  and  knock  :  if  any  man  hear  my 
voice,  and  open  the  door,  I  will  come  in  to  him,  and 
will  sup  with  him,  and  he  with  me."  The  throne- 
room  of  the  church  where  he  has  ordained  to 
rule  his  flock ;  the  choir-room  where  he  would 
preside  in  the  Holy  Ghost  as  the  inspirer  of  praise  ; 
the  pew-rooms  into  which  he  would  have  freedom 
of  entrance,  even  when  coming  in  the  lowliest 
garb ;  these  he  did  not  storm  with  violent  anath- 
emas, but  gently  solicited  to  open  unto  him.  Woe 
to  those  who  judge  before  the  time  !  who  depart 
from  their  brethren,  and  slam  that  door  behind 
them  before  which  Jesus  is  gently  knocking ;  who 
spue  the  church  out  of  their  mouths  while  he, 
though  rebuking  it,  still  loves  it  and  owns  it  and 
invites  it  to  sup  with  him, 

"  For  the  law  of  the  Spirit  of  life  in  Christ  Jesus 
hath  made  me  free  from  the  law  of  sin  and  death," 
writes  the  apostle.  This  is  the  method  of  the 
Lord's  present  work — death  overcome  by  life.  "  I 
cannot  sweep  the  darkness  out  but  I  can  shine  it 
out,"  said  John  Newton.  We  cannot  scourge  dead 
works  out  of  the  church,  but  we  can  live  them  out. 


CLEANSING  THE  TEMPLE  63 

If  we  accuse  the  church  with  having  the  pneumonia 
let  us  who  are  individual  air-cells  in  that  church, 
breathe  deeply  and  wait  patiently  and  pray  believ- 
ingly,  and  one  after  another  of  the  obstructed  cells 
will  open  to  the  Spirit  till  convalescence  is  re- 
established in  every  part. 

With  the  deepest  humility  the  writer  here  sets 
his  seal  of  verifying  experience.  When  the  truth 
of  the  in-residence  of  the  Spirit  and  of  his  pre- 
siding in  the  church  of  God  became  a  living  con- 
viction, then  began  a  constant  magnifying  of  him 
in  his  offices.  Several  sermons  were  preached 
yearly  setting  forth  the  privileges  and  duties  of 
Christians  under  his  administration ;  special  sea- 
sons of  daily  prayer  were  set  apart,  extending 
sometimes  over  several  weeks,  during  which  con- 
tinual intercession  was  made  for  the  power  of  the 
Holy  Ghost.  It  was  not  so  much  prayer  for  par- 
ticular blessings  as  an  effort  to  get  into  fellowship 
with  the  Spirit  and  to  be  brought  into  unreserved 
surrender  to  his  life  and  acting.  The  circle  of  those 
thus  praying  was  thus  constantly  enlarged.  Then 
gradually,  the  result  appeared  in  the  whole  church ; 
the  incoming  tide  began  to  fill  the  bays  and  inlets, 
and  as  it  did  so  the  drift-wood  was  dislodged  and 
floated  away.  Ecclesiastical  amusements  dropped 
off,  not  so  much  by  the  denunciation  of  the  pulpit, 
as  by  the  displacement  of  the  deepening  life.  The 
service  of  song   was   quietly   surrendered   back   to 


64  HOW   CHRIST   CAME   TO   CHURCH 

the  congregation  and,  instead  of  the  select  choir, 
the  church — who  constitute  the  true  Levites  as 
well  as  the  appointed  priesthood  of  the  New  Dis- 
pensation— -took  up  the  sacrifice  of  praise  anew  and 
filled  the  house  with  their  song.  As  noiselessly 
and  irresistibly  as  the  ascending  sap  displaces  the 
dead  leaves  which  have  clung  all  winter  long  to  the 
trees,  so  quietly  did  the  incoming  Spirit  seem  to 
crowd  off  the  traditional  usages  which  had  hindered 
our  liberty.  Later  came  the  abolition  of  pew- 
rentals,  and  the  disuse  of  church  sales  for  raising 
money  for  missions  and  other  charities.  Meantime 
the  pulpit  acquired  a  liberty  hitherto  unknown  ; 
the  outward  hampering  being  removed,  the  inward 
help  became  more  and  more  apparent,  and  the 
preacher  felt  himself  constantly  drawn  out  instead 
of  being  perpetually  repressed  as  in  the  olden  time. 
The  prayer  meeting  soon  passed  beyond  the  neces- 
sity of  being  "sustained"  and  became  the  most 
helpful  nourisher  and  sustainer  of  the  church.  The 
place  is  always  filled,  and  instead  of  urging  the 
people  to  come,  or  inviting  them  to  participate,  the 
attendance  is  joyfully  voluntary,  and  the  praying 
and  testifying  always  so  spontaneous  and  hearty 
that  one  can  scarce  remember  when  it  has  been 
found  needful  to  urge  Christians  to  the  exercise  of 
these  privileges. 

It  is  by  no  means  affirmed  that  the  old  leaven  has 
been  completely  purged  out,  so  that  nothing  of  the 


CLEANSING  THE  TEMPLE  65 

secular  and  iinspiritual  remains  in  the  temple  of  the 
Spirit  where  we  worship.  No !  If  that  Divine 
Visitant  were  to  appear  once  more  in  yonder  pew, 
and  with  those  eyes  which  are  like  a  flame  of  fire 
were  to  search  our  sanctuary,  it  pains  me  to  think 
what  he  might  discover,  which  has  hitherto  escaped 
our  search.  We  are  only  speaking  now  of  a 
comparative  cleansing,  deeply  sensible  of  much, 
both  known  and  unknown,  which  yet  remains  to  be 
accomplished. 

But  of  the  result  thus  far  may  we  speak  without 
glorying.  Most  apt  is  Dr.  Bonar's  story  of  the 
auctioneer,  who  was  commending  in  glowing  words 
a  picture  by  one  of  the  old  masters,  himself  mean- 
while standing  behind  the  painting  which  he  was 
selling,  and  allowing  it  to  hide  him  from  view.  All 
that  we  are  trying  to  do  in  this  chapter  is  to  mag- 
nify the  work  of  an  "old  master,"  the  Galilean  Car- 
penter, who  only  asked  liberty  to  work  among  us 
that  he  might  build  "  his  own  house ;  whose  house 
are  we,  if  we  hold  fast  the  confidence  and  the  re- 
joicing of  the  hope  firm  unto  the  end"  (Heb.  3  : 
6).  Let  his  work  appear  unto  his  servants,  and  let 
"the  workers  together  with  him"  be  hidden  from 
view. 

I  observed  neither  saw,  hammer,  nor  plane  in  his 
hand  when  he  came  into  yonder  pew  on  that  morn- 
ing ;  and  though  from  that  day  he  began  to  recon- 
struct the  temple,  "  there  was  neither  hammer,  nor 


66  HOW   CHRIST   CAME   TO   CHURCH 

axe,  nor  any  tool  of  iron,  heard  in  the  house  while 
it  was  building,"  All  went  on  noiselessly,  so  that 
now  we  wonder  at  the  progress  of  the  work. 

One  freshly  anointed  was  moved  to  undertake 
a  mission  to  the  Jews,  among  whom  up  to  this  time 
no  systematic  effort  had  been  made ;  the  result — 
hundreds  of  Hebrews  reached  by  the  gospel,  not  a 
few  converts  won  to  Christ,  and  a  Jewish  missionary 
raised  up  for  his  people. 

Another  brother  was  drawn  out  on  behalf  of  the 
Chinese  ;  the  result — a  Chinese  mission  school  of 
two  hundred ;  twenty-five  now  members  of  the 
church,  and  one  of  their  number,  a  veritable  apostle, 
now  returned  to  his  native  land,  to  make  known  the 
gospel  to  his  countrymen. 

A  newly  quickened  disciple  was  drawn  to  the 
work  of  outdoor  preaching  ;  the  result — a  band  of 
young  men  and  women  raised  up  who  have  gone  to 
wharves,  car-stables,  and  public  squares,  with  in- 
creasing devotion  to  this  service,  which  has  now 
gone  on  weekly  for  more  than  five  years. 

Others  were  moved  to  enter  into  rescue  work 
among  ruined  women  ;  the  result — a  home  opened 
and  now  a  far-reaching  effort  extending  out  and 
bringing  Christians  of  all  names  into  co-operation. 

An  industrial  home  was  instituted  for  intem- 
perate and  unemployed  men  ;  the  result — a  shelter 
in  which  thousands  have  found  refuge,  and  converts 
have  been  won  to  Christ  by  hundreds. 


CLEANSING  THE  TEMPLE  67 

A  training  school  for  evangelists  was  opened,  de- 
signed to  equip  men  and  women  of  humble  attain- 
ments for  Christian  work  at  home  and  abroad ;  the 
result — a  score  of  foreign  missionaries  sent  out 
since  the  work  began,  four  years  ago  ;  and  many- 
more  put  forth  into  destitute  fields  at  home,  while  a 
hundred  and  fifty  are  now  under  instruction. 

Meantime  evangelistic  efforts  have  reached  out 
on  every  side,  some  "tens"  of  our  brethren  being 
entirely  occupied  in  this  work  and  as  many  more 
working  in  the  foreign  field.  By  spontaneous  free- 
will giving  the  offerings  to  foreign  missions  have 
steadily  increased,  rising  to  ten  thousand,  to  twelve 
thousand,  and  one  year  to  twenty  thousand  dollars, 
as  the  annual  contribution  to  this  work.  And  this 
increase  in  giving  was  not  the  result  of  begging  or 
dunning.  Much  prayer  was  made  and  the  strongest 
evangelical  motive  urged  in  behalf  of  it.  Mean- 
time there  has  been  a  freshness  and  heartiness  in 
our  worship  hitherto  unknown.  The  Spirit  has  had 
liberty  to  break  forth  in  song  in  unexpected  ways 
now  and  then,  as  when  a  joyous  young  disciple 
going  down  to  be  baptized  sang  the  strains  of  "  My 
Jesus,  I  love  thee,  I  know  thou  art  mine,"  as  her 
feet  touched  the  water,  all  the  congregation  uniting 
with  overpowering  effect.  What  could  that  little 
quartette  box  have  done  like  this  .'' 

So,  likewise,  there  has  been  an  open  window  into 
the  sermon  through  which  the  Holy  Ghost  has  come 


68  HOW   CHRIST   CAME   TO   CHURCH 

in  with  unexpected  suggestions,  fitted  for  the  occa- 
sion. In  a  word,  the  law  of  liberty  seems  to  have 
largely  supplemented  machinery  and  organization. 
And  yet,  be  it  noted,  that  even  this  record  would 
not  be  committed  to  print  save  for  one  reason,  viz., 
that  it  is  recognized  to  be  not  a  "  work  "  but  "  his 
workmanship."  Not  one  of  these  enterprises  was 
planned  beforehand,  so  that  they  could  be  credited 
to  some  superior,  organizer.  They  "  grew  up,  he 
knoweth  not  how,"  who  now  tells  the  story.  They 
are  described  after  much  hesitation,  and  with  pro- 
longed weighing  of  each  statement,  with  the  hope 
that  they  may  bring  home  the  suggestion  to  some 
who  have  not  entertained  it,  t/iat  tJie  Holy  Ghost, 
the  present  Christ,  has  been  given  to  be  the  admin- 
istrator of  the  chnrch;  and  that  in  these  days  of 
endless  organisations  and  multiplied  secular  ma- 
chinery, he  will  surprise  us  by  showing  what  he  zvill 
do  if  we  will  give  him  tmhindered  liberty  of  action 
in  his  own  house. 


PART  III 

THE  DREAM 
AS  INTERPRETING  THE  MAN 


THE  DREAM 
AS  INTERPRETING  THE  MAN 


THE  preceding  spiritual  autobiography  is  based 
upon  a  dream.  This  is  not  the  first  time  that 
a  dream  has  proved  a  potent  factor  in  a  hu- 
man life.  Those  who  are  familiar  with  the  history 
of  Catherine  of  Siena  know  how  repeated  and  strik- 
ing were  her  visions  by  day  and  by  night ;  and  readers 
of  the  life  of  Richard  Baxter  will  recall  his  marked 
experience,  and  that  vivid  vision  of  lost  opportuni- 
ties which  so  quickened  his  after  acti^ 'ty.  Christ- 
mas Evans  also,  that  prince  of  Wei  ,h  preachers, 
while  yet  only  a  young  convert  and  on  the  very 
night  succeeding  the  loss  of  one  eye  from  the  as- 
sault of  ruffianly  violence,  had  a  remarkable  dream. 
He  thought  that  the  awful  day  of  judgment  had 
come,  and  seeing  the  world  wrapped  in  its  winding 
sheet  of  flame,  he  cried  out,  with  mingled  terror 
and  confidence,  "  Lord  Jesus,  save  me  !  "  Then  he 
beheld  the  Master  turn  toward  him,  and  heard  him 
say :  "  It  was  thy  intention  to  preach  the  gospel ; 
but  it  is  now  too  late,  for  the  day  of  judgment  is 
already  come."  That  vision  of  the  darkness  re- 
mained in  the  day  so  vivid  a  reality  that  the  reflec- 

71 


72      THE  DREAM  AS  INTERPRETING  THE  MAN 

tions  which  it  awakened  served  to  fan  into  a  con- 
suming flame  of  ardor  and  fervor  his  passion  for 
souls.  And  he  always  believed  that  this  and  other 
dreams  were  God's  messengers  sent  to  communicate 
to  him  some  of  the  mightiest  impulses  that  swayed 
his  life. 

While,  therefore,  Dr.  Gordon  was  not  the  first 
man,  or  preacher  of  the  gospel,  whose  life,  charac- 
ter, and  conduct  have  been  singularly  molded  by  a 
dream,  he  was  careful  to  claim  even  for  this  re- 
markable and  unique  experience,  no  supernatural 
origin. 

"  The  prophet  that  hath  a  dream,  let  him  tell  a 
dream  ; 

"  And  he  that  hath  my  word,  let  him  speak  my 
word  faithfully. 

♦'  What  is  the  chaff  to  the  wheat,  saith  the  Lord." 

In  strict  conformity  to  this  divine  injunction, 
this  dream  is  told,  as  such,  without  affirming  for  it, 
or  even  implying  in  it,  any  authority.  Nor  is  any 
philosophy  here  suggested  as  to  those  strange  vaga- 
ries of  the  spirit  in  the  semi-conscious  state  of  sleep, 
which  seem  to  belong  to  the  borderland  between 
insanity  and  inspiration,  and  which,  after  all  these 
centuries,  remain  still  an  unsolved  mystery.  Yet, 
in  this  instance  as  in  many  others,  the  fact  remains 
obvious  that  God  has  used  a  dream  to  put  into  life 
a  new  meaning,  and  impart  to  holy  activity  a  new 
momentum. 


THE  DREAM  AS  INTERPRETING  THE  MAN      73 

There  is  one  important  law  of  dreams  which 
should,  however,  be  recognized :  they  do  sustain 
an  important  relation  to  the  habitual  inner  life. 
Whether  by  way  of  correspondence  or  of  contrast, 
they  serve  as  a  sort  of  reflection  of  the  mental 
moods  and  spiritual  habits.  Such  a  dream  as  is 
here  recorded  is  therefore  an  index  and  interpreter 
of  the  man,  and  will  bear  careful  study  as  a  revela- 
tion of  his  inner  self. 

Dream's,  moreover,  have  this  unique  peculiarity, 
that  they  translate  the  historical  into  the  poetical, 
the  actual  into  the  allegorical ;  that  is,  they  weave 
sensuous  impressions  or  abstract  ideas  into  concrete 
and  often  personal  forms.  The  imagination,  being 
no  more  restrained  and  corrected  by  the  more  prac- 
tical senses,  is  left  to  itself  to  wander  as  it  will  and 
build  fantastic  forms,  unchecked  by  the  sober  real- 
istic reason.  Hence  such  a  dream  as  is  here  crys- 
tallized into  a  narrative,  when  divested  of  its  purely 
imaginative  and  allegorical  dress,  becomes  a  valuable 
exponent  of  the  author's  inmost  habits  of  thought 
and  feeling.  As  such  we  shall  now  consider  it, 
believing  these  mental  habits  to  supply  the  most 
helpful  sort  of  practical  and  biographical  commen- 
tary upon  the  striking  narrative  which  was  the  last 
product  of  Dr.  Gordon's  gifted  pen,  and  which 
forms  the  last  legacy  of  this  holy  man  and  prince 
among  preachers  to  the  church  of  his  generation. 

The  dream  centers  about  the  personal  coming  of 
I 


74      THE  DREAM  AS  INTERPRETING  THE  MAN 

Christ  to  his  own  church,  his  reception  there,  the 
character  of  the  worship  he  confronted,  the  fidelity 
of  the  gospel  message  he  heard,  the  spiritual  atti- 
tude of  the  hearers  whom  he  met,  and  his  general 
approval  or  disapproval  of  the  whole  atmosphere  of 
the  place  of  prayer ;  and  especially  the  measure  of 
his  recognition  of  the  invisible  presence  and  presi- 
dence  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the  body  of  Christ. 
Who  that  knew  Adoniram  Judson  Gordon  needs  to 
be  told  that  such  a  dream  is  not  a  mere  incoherent 
and  senseless  vagary  of  the  mind,  for  it  invests 
with  poetic  and  allegorical  form  the  ruling  ideas 
and  ideals  of  his  whole  later  life,  which  may  be 
classified  somewhat  as  follows  : 

1.  Loyalty  to  the  person  of  Christ  as  Son  of  God 
and  his  own  Saviour. 

2.  The  blessed  hope  of  his  personal  coming,  as 
an  imminent  event. 

3.  The  high  vocation  of  the  preacher  as  Christ's 
herald,  witness,  and  ambassador. 

4.  The  purity  of  worship  as  the  exaltation  of  God 
alone  in  his  sanctuary, 

5.  The  supreme  authority  of  the  inspired  and  in- 
fallible word  of  God. 

6.  The  conformity  of  entire  church  life  to  a  bibli- 
cal pattern. 

7.  The  invisible  presence  and  power  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  in  the  church  as  his  temple  and  seat  of  ad- 
ministration. 


THE  DREAM  AS  INTERPRETING  THE  MAN   75 

To  present  these  conceptions  in  their  order,  some- 
what as  they  lay  in  Dr.  Gordon's  mind,  and  with 
impartial  faithfulness,  will  be  the  simple  purpose 
and  purport  of  what  follows  ;  and  it  is  our  hope 
that,  in  so  doing,  there  may  be  presented  a  com- 
mentary on  this  dream  ;  and,  what  is  even  more 
valuable,  an  outline  portrait,  at  least,  of  the  man 
who  is  to  be  recognized  as  among  the  richest  gifts 
bestowed  by  the  Father  of  us  all  upon  the  church 
of  this  illustrious  century ;  and  whose  character 
and  influence,  all  who  best  knew  him  desire  to  per- 
petuate and  reproduce  in  the  history  now  making 
for  the  auarust  future. 


LOYALTY  TO  THE  PERSON  OF  CHRIST 

" /^O  a  little  deeper  and  you'll  find  the  emperor," 
\^  said  the  wounded  soldier  of  Napoleon's  body- 
guard, to  the  surgeon  probing  for  the  ball. 
And  in  the  deepest  soul  of  Dr.  Gordon,  was  the 
shrine  of  the  personal  Christ. 

The  genius  of  his  whole  godliness  was  found  in 
this  personal  bond.  He  was  jealous  of  truth  of 
which  all  sound  doctrine  is  the  crystallization,  and 
all  true  life  the  incarnation  ;  but  to  him  the  living 
Christ  was  the  Truth,  and  no  mere  creed  could  sat- 
isfy the  soul  that  longed  for  a  person  to  believe 
and  love ;  and  error  was  repugnant  mainly  because 
it  meant  a  denial,  or  at  best  a  dishonor,  of  Christ 
the  divine  Teacher. 

This  personal  center  of  the  gospel  and  of  the 
new  life  explains  ail  that  is  otherwise  mysterious 
about  this  man  of  God.  His  conversion  was  his 
turning  toward  Christ  as  his  Saviour  and  Lord. 
He  believed  the  message  that  God  gave  of  his  Son, 
that  in  him  is  life  everlasting,  and  that  whosoever 
believeth  in  him  shall  not  perish,  nor  come  into 
judgment,  but  is  passed  from  death  unto  life.  If  he 
was  not  troubled  with  doubts  about  his  own  salva- 
76 


LOYALTY  TO  THE  PERSON  OE  CHRIST        77 

tion,  it  was  because  he  had  learned,  once  for  all, 
that  the  ground  of  hope  is  not  internal,  but  external ; 
not  within  us,  but  without  us  ;  not  in  any  merit  or 
works  or  feelings  of  our  own,  but  in  the  perfect 
obedience  and  vicarious  suffering  of  our  great  Sub- 
stitute and  Saviour.  Instead  of  trying,  he  found 
peace  in  trusting,  looking  away  to  Jesus,  as  the 
Author  and  Perfecter  of  his  faith. 

It  was  said  of  Matthew  Henry  that,  "  when  he 
lacked  the  faith  of  assurance,  he  lived  by  the  faith  of 
adherence."  He,  of  whom  we  write,  talked  little 
of  the  assurance  of  faith,  yet  he  never  seemed  to  be 
darkened  by  doubt,  because  he  walked  in  the  light 
by  the  faith  of  adherence,  which  became  to  him  the 
faith  of  assurance  by  unconscious  transfer.  When 
the  hand  has  hold  of  another's  hand,  it  is  hard  to 
doubt  that  other's  presence ;  and  if  we  thought  less 
of  our  own  assurance,  and  looked  more  to  the  main- 
tenance of  an  assured  and  uninterrupted  fellowship 
with  a  personal  Saviour,  we  should  know  that  we 
are  in  him  and  he  in  us  by  the  Spirit  which  he  hath 
given  us,  and  by  the  constant  and  conscious  touch 
of  holy  contact. 

There  is  such  a  thing  as  Isaac  Taylor,  in  one  of 
his  chapters  on  "  Holy  Living,"  calls  the  "  Practice 
of  the  Presence  of  God."  "  Lo,  I  am  with  you 
alway,  even  unto  the  end  of  the  age,"  says  the 
omnipresent  Master  ;  and  there  is  no  greater  need 
than  that  this  presence  shall  be  recognized  and  felt. 


78      THE  DREAM  AS  INTERPRETING  THE  MAN 

It  cannot  be  detected  by  the  physical  senses,  for  it  is 
not  a  sensible  fact.  But,  to  him  who  cultivates  the 
sensibility  to  the  unseen  and  exercises  his  inner 
senses  to  discern  good  and  evil,  the  reality  of  the 
presence  of  Christ  may  become  as  indisputable  as 
anything  demonstrable  by  the  bodily  organs. 

Such  communion  with  a  personal  Christ  assimi- 
lates character  to  his  likeness.  "  Beholding  as  in  a 
glass  the  glory  of  the  Lord,  we  are  changed  into 
the  same  image  from  glory  to  glory." 

The  rapid  transformation  of  Dr.  Gordon  into  the 
resemblance  of  Christ  was  patent  to  all  observers, 
most  of  all  to  those  who  most  closely  observed  him 
and  best  knew  him.  In  the  home,  where  it  is  most 
difficult  to  show  piety,  his  piety  not  only  was  shown 
but  it  sJionc.  Nearness  of  approach  often  dissipates 
the  charm  that  invests  others ;  but  no  one  felt  such 
absolute  confidence  in  his  genuineness  and  godliness 
as  those  who  had  most  chance  to  detect  the  faults 
and  the  blemishes  in  his  character. 

Our  Brother  Gordon  combined  the  Pauline  and 
the  Johannean  temperaments  in  one,  the  active  and 
the  reflective ;  the  combination  is  rare,  and  implies 
an  equally  rare  type  of  character.  Again,  he 
blended  to  an  unusual  degree  the  intellectual  and 
the  affectional.  Most  men  whose  minds  are  so  in- 
tense as  his,  lack  heart-qualities ;  they  impress 
others  as  cold,  giving  out  light  but  not  heat,  and  so 
having  little  drawing   power.      This  man  beamed 


LOYAIvTY  TO  THE  PERSON  OF  CHRIST        79 

with  the  warmth  of  sunshine.  You  could  bask  in 
his  rays.  There  was  about  him  a  benignity,  a  be- 
nevolence, that  compelled  recognition.  Much  as  he 
was  admired,  he  was  most  of  all  loved. 

All  this  was  a  result  of  the  intense  love  he 
bore  to  the  person  of  Christ.  Had  he  simply 
studied  Christianity  as  a  system  of  truth,  he  might 
have  been  a  righteous  man,  exhibiting  a  cold  con- 
formity to  righteousness,  as  a  marble  statue,  rigidly 
symmetrical  and  frigidly  exact,  conforms  to  the  stand- 
ards of  art.  But  it  was  only  when,  penetrating  be- 
yond all  mere  doctrine,  he  found  the  person  of 
Christ  and  fixed  on  him  his  gaze  of  adoring  love, 
that  he  became  the  good  man,  and,  like  his  Master, 
went  about  doing  good,  attracting  to  himself  such 
devotion  that  for  him  hundreds  would  even  have 
dared  to  die. 

This  generation  has  furnished  no  other  man,  per- 
sonally known  to  me,  who  in  these  respects  so  re- 
sembled Dr.  Gordon,  as  did  Theodor  Christlieb,  of 
Bonn.  Born  in  1833  and  dying  in  1889,  in  his  fifty- 
seventh  year,  his  life  had  run  over  almost  the  same 
length  of  tim.e  and  cycle  of  history,  and  his  views 
of  truth  were  strikingly  like  those  of  his  American 
contemporary,  even  to  such  minute  matters  as  di- 
vine healing  and  the  Lord's  coming  ;  and,  like  his 
American  brother,  he  could  say  at  the  last,  "  I  have 
not  for  an  instant  ever  had  the  slightest  doubt  that 
I  am  an  accepted  sinner,   and,  if  I  have  to  take 


8o      THE  DREAM  AS  INTERPRETING  THE  MAN 

leave  of  all  else,  I  shall  never  have  to  part  from 
thee,  my  Saviour."  Christlieb  also  sought  to  train 
students  for  the  work  of  evangelism,  and  had  the 
keenest  interest  in  missions,  as  his  well-known  book 
on  the  subject  attests.  He  was  the  opponent  of 
rationalistic  criticism,  affirming  that  the  one  key  to 
the  word  of  God  is  not  found  in  commentaries  nor 
in  the  study  of  the  original  text,  but  can  be  given 
only  by  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God  in  answer  to  prayer. 
He,  like  Dr.  Gordon,  revered  the  pietists  who  had 
kept  alive  the  slumbering  embers  of  piety  and  mis- 
sions amid  the  deadness  of  almost  universal  rational- 
ism and  skepticism.  But  most  of  all  did  these  two 
men  resemble  each  other  in  the  blending  of  the 
active  temperament  of  Paul  with  the  reflective 
temperament  of  John,  and  in  that  intense  loyalty  to 
the  person  of  Christ  which  made  all  other  attrac- 
tions fade  and  pale  in  his  presence,  as  the  stars  re- 
tire at  dawning  of  the  day. 

To  a  man,  whose  central  passion  was  thus  ab- 
sorbed on  the  Christ  of  God,  and  who  was  accus- 
tomed to  put  Jesus  before  him  in  daily  life,  as  the 
engrossing  object  of  enamoring  love,  the  standard 
of  all  excellence,  the  model  for  all  imitation,  the 
final  Judge  whose  approval  is  the  only  verdict  to  be 
valued,  it  is  not  strange  that  a  dream  should  crys- 
tallize about  his  divine  Lord,  and  that  the  supreme 
question  which  that  dream  suggested  was,  "  JV/iat 
would  Christ  say  if  he  came  to  church  f  " 


II 

THE    PERSONAL    COMING    OF    CHRIST 

THERE  are  three  mountain  peaks  in  the  land- 
scape of  bibhcal  history  and  prophecy,  and 
each  represents  an  advent.  First,  the  advent 
of  the  first  Adam,  in  the  creation  ;  secondly,  the  ad- 
vent of  the  Second  Adam,  in  his  incarnation  ;  and 
thirdly,  the  second  advent  of  the  Son  of  Man  and 
Son  of  God,  at  his  final  revelation.  Each  of  these 
peaks  presents  a  double  prominence  ;  for  the  crea- 
tion of  man  is  associated  with  his  fall,  the  incarna- 
tion of  Christ  with  his  death,  and  the  second  com- 
ing of  Christ  with  his  reign. 

Between  the  first  and  second  of  these  advents, 
stands  one  simple  object,  an  altar  of  sacrifice  front- 
ing both  ways  and  linking  the  two  :  for  every  victim 
that  bled  and  burned  on  the  altar  pointed  backward 
to  the  sin  of  Adam  and  forward  to  the  coming  Lamb 
of  God.  And  between  the  second  and  third  of  these 
advents,  the  incarnation  and  the  final  revelation  of 
Christ,  stands  likewise  one  simple  object — the 
Table  of  the  Lord,  that  likewise  points  both  ways 
and  links  the  two  :  for,  "  As  often  as  ye  eat  this 
bread,  and  drink  this  cup,  ye  do  shew  tJie  LonV s 
death  till  he  come." 

8i 


82      THE  DREAM  AS  INTERPRETING  THE  MAN 

There  is  something  very  beautiful  about  the  sim- 
ple faith  that  accepts  the  mystery  of  biblical  teach- 
ing without  hesitation,  even  where  it  defies  pene- 
tration and  explanation.  Dr.  Gordon  was  one  of 
the  giants  of  his  day.  Few  men  have  minds  more 
colossal  in  stature  and  more  Titanic  in  grasp.  Yet 
he  bowed  meekly  to  Scrijoture  teaching,  even  where 
reason  could  not  explore.  The  doctrine  of  the 
Lord's  second  coming,  with  the  august  events  at- 
tendant upon  it,  such  as  the  first  resurrection  of  the 
sleeping  saints  and  the  rapture  of  living  saints,  the 
development  and  destruction  of  antichrist,  the  con- 
version of  the  Jews  and  the  personal  reign  of  the 
Son  of  God,  the  apostasy  of  the  church,  etc.,  pre- 
sented to  his  mind  difficulties  and  even  discrepan- 
cies which  his  reason  could  neither  unravel  nor 
reconcile.  But,  having  satisfied  himself  that  the 
Bible  is  the  word  of  God,  he  had  no  further  ques- 
tion than  this  :  What  does  the  Bible  teach  ?  And 
as  he  found  this  truth  lying  on  the  very  surface  of 
the  word  of  God,  it  would  have  been  an  irreverent 
rationalism  either  to  refuse  to  receive  it  or  to  at- 
tempt by  a  tortuous  exegesis  to  explain  it  away. 

Inseparable  from  this  biblical  authority  and 
prominence  of  this  truth  was  its  naturalness,  as  the 
completion  and  consummation  of  the  divine  plan. 
There  is  an  unpublished  and  probably  unwritten 
lecture  of  Dr.  Gordon's,  on  the  "  Plan  of  the  Ages," 
which  those  who  heard  it  regard  as  one  of  the  most 


THE  PERSONAL  COMING  OF  CHRIST  83 


masterly  products  of  his  study  of  the  word,  and  in 
which  he  set  forth  the  divine  teaching  as  to  the 
providential  purpose  exhibited  in  the  course  of  his- 
tory. In  the  Kpistle  to  the  Hebrews  we  find  the 
grand  conception  that  God  made  the  "  time  worlds  " 
(at'oii/a)  as  he  did  the  matter  worlds,  and  framed  them 
together  like  the  joints  of  a  body  or  the  beams  of  a 
house ;  in  this  study  of  the  ages  Dr.  Gordon  care- 
fully traced  the  teaching  of  the  word  of  God  as  to 
these  successive  periods  of  history.  He  divided 
them  into  three :  the  Age  of  Preparation,  the 
present  Gospel  Age  of  Ingathering,  and  the  Age  of 
Consummation ;  or  the  age  before  Christ,  the  age 
from  his  first  to  his  second  coming,  and  the  mil- 
lennial age.  In  a  marvelous  way  he  then  proceeded 
to  show  how  all  prophecies,  precepts,  and  other 
teachings  of  the  word  fall  into  their  appropriate 
place  when  their  relations  to  these  three  ages  are 
understood ;  how  countless  difficulties  are  relieved 
and  countless  errors  avoided,  so  soon  as  God's  plans 
are  rightly  conceived.  With  the  skill  of  a  master, 
he  then  showed  how,  the  moment  that  which  is 
characteristic  of  the  preparatory  legal  and  Jewish 
age  is  imported  into  the  gospel  age,  or  what  be- 
longs in  this  present  evil  age  is  transferred  over 
into  the  age  to  come,  or  reversely,  we  turn  cosmos 
into  chaos,  and  get  everything  out  of  order  into  con- 
fusion. A  very  intelligent  hearer  remarked,  after 
a  delivery  of  this  grand  address :  "  Why  you  Jiavejicst 


84     THE  DREAM  AS  INTERPRETING  THE  MAN 

foimd  a  pigeon-hole  for  every  text,''  and  this  well  de- 
scribes the  practical  effect  of  this  study  of  the  dis- 
pensational  history  of  redemption.  To  Dr.  Gordon 
the  whole  subject  of  the  Lord's  coming,  however  mys- 
terious, seemed  only  the  most  natural  event  possi- 
ble as  the  conclusion  and  consummation  of  the  plan 
and  history  of  redemption.  The  advent  of  man  to 
this  globe  was  also  the  signal  for  the  disaster  of  sin 
and  the  ruin  of  the  race.  To  repair  this  ruin  the 
Redeemer  came,  but  in  disguise.  It  can  now  be 
seen  that  such  disguise  was  essential  to  his  mission, 
for  had  he  come  otherwise,  he  could  not  have  ac- 
complished his  holy  errand.  Humiliation  was  neces- 
sary in  order  to  vicarious  atonement,  for  the  Second 
Adam  must  be  identified  with  the  sin,  sorrow,  and 
misery  of  the  race.  He  must  be  born  of  a  woman, 
made  under  the  law,  "a  man  of  sorrows  and  ac- 
quainted with  grief."  He  must  by  his  poverty  and 
obscurity  be  identified  with  the  lowest  and  the  least, 
else  how  could  he  represent  humanity  as  such  ;  he 
must  be  made  sin  for  us,  and  suffer  as  a  malefactor. 
All  this  implied  an  emptying  of  self — a  making 
himself  of  no  reputation,  an  obedience  unto  death. 
But  surely  this  cannot  be  the  end,  the  final  manifes- 
tation of  the  Son  of  God.  And  so  the  word  of 
God  plainly  reveals  another  advent,  not  in  shame 
but  in  glory,  not  in  disguise  but  in  his  essential  in- 
vestment, as  the  King  of  kings,  with  his  proper 
royal    retinue — the    natural    necessary    consumma- 


THR   PERSONAL  CXDMING  OF  CHRIST  85 


tion  of  the  divine  drama,  the  true  revelation  of  the 
Son  of  God. 

And  the  "  blessed  hope  "  has  thus  the  highest 
prominence  in  the  Scripture  ;  it  is  revealed  as  the 
golden  milestone  toward  which  all  events  point  and 
all  roads  tend.  All  good  waits  to  find  in  his  second 
appearing,  his  true  epiphany,  its  completion  and 
consummation.  All  that  is  best  in  human  history  is 
but  the  foretaste  or  first-fruits  of  which  this  is  to 
be  the  harvest.  The  conquest  of  sin,  now  indi- 
vidual and  occasional  and  exceptional,  is  then  to 
be  general,  wide-spread,  and  final.  Now,  Satan, 
though  resisted  by  saints,  is  yet  at  large  working 
disaster  to  the  race  ;  then,  he  is  to  be  bound  and 
finally  burned — ^consigned  to  the  lake  of  fire.  The 
Holy  'Spirit,  now  shed  abundantly  on  believers, 
is  to  be  poured  out  on  all  flesh.  Evangelism,  now 
like  a  river,  with  many  little  rills  that  reach  far  into 
the  deserts  and  here  and  there  turn  wastes  into  gar- 
dens, shall  then  cover  the  earth  with  a  flood  as  the  sea 
does  its  bed.  Now  we  see  the  outgathering  of  the 
elect  from  all  nations  :  God  visiting  the  Gentiles  to 
take  out  of  them  a  people  for  his  name  ;  then  the 
very  kingdoms  of  this  world  are  to  become  the 
kingdom  of  the  Lord  Christ. 

Christ's  coming  is  to  introduce  events  and  de- 
velopments of  almost  unprecedented  character, 
such  as  the  resurrection  of  sleeping  saints,  the  res- 
toration of  Israel,  the  universal  exaltation  of  God's 

K 


86      THE  DREAM  AS  INTERPRETING  THE  MAN 

anointed  King,  the  final  triumph  of  godliness,  the 
judgment  of  God's  enemies,  and  the  reward  of  his 
servants. 

Surely  if  the  Bible  did  not  reveal  this  as  the  ulti- 
mate outcome  of  the  great  historic  ages,  it  would 
seem  the  most  consistent  and  natural  culmination 
and  consummation  of  the  redemptive  scheme.  This 
is  the  "blessed  hope"  toward  which  for  many  years 
our  departed  brother  looked  with  unspeakable  long- 
ing as  the  crown  of  all  other  hopes. 

That  which  pre-eminently  marks  the  Scripture 
teaching  as  to  our  Lord's  second  coming,  is  its  im- 
ininencc,  or  the  combination  of  certainty  at  some 
time  with  uncertainty  at  what  time.  And  our 
Lord  himself  made  this  imminence  the  main  incen- 
tive to  vigilance  and  diligence  :  "  Watch,  therefore, 
for  ye  know  neither  the  day  nor  the  hour  wherein 
the  Son  of  man  cometh."  To  refer  this  to  death 
is  to  violate  the  simplest  laws  of  exegesis  and  upset 
the  whole  science  of  hermeneutics.  Such,  and 
similar  expressions  can  refer  to  nothing  less  than 
the  personal  return  of  the  Son  of  Man,  to  assume 
the  sceptre  and  mount  the  throne  toward  which  all 
prophecy  and  promise  look.  And  as  Dr.  Gordon 
often  said,  there  is  not  a  virtue  or  grace  in  the 
whole  circle  or  chorus  of  Christian  attainments 
that  is  not  in  the  Scripture  connected  expressly 
with  this  blessed  hope. 

This  dream,  therefore,  not  unnaturally  pictures 


THE   PERSONAL   COMING   OF  CHRIST  87 

the  Son  of  Man  as  coming  SLiddcnly  to  his  temple — 
unexpectedly  appearing  in  the  midst  of  his  people 
to  test,  as  with  refiner's  fire,  the  service  of  his 
saints,  as  to  whether  or  not  it  is  an  offering  in  right- 
eousness. 


Ill 


THE  SACREDNESS  OF  THE  PREACHER  S  VOCATION 

THERE  is  one  calling  which  especially  deserves 
the  name  of  the  "  High  calling  of  God  in  Christ 
Jesus,"  namely,  that  of  the  preacher  of  the 
gospel.  He  who,  from  this  divine  vocation,  goes 
into  any  other,  though  it  be  to  occupy  the  throne  of 
a  world  empire,  steps  down  to  a  lower  level.  The 
piety  and  purity  of  a  Christian  community  will 
therefore  be  found  to  be  in  exact  proportion  to  the 
intelligent  respect  and  reverence  in  which  the  office 
of  the  minister  of  Christ  is  held,  and  by  which  it  is 
magnified. 

Paul  to  the  Ephesian  elders,^  gives  the  five-fold 
aspect  of  this  office  of  the  preacher  and  teacher  : 
First,  it  is  a  mmistry  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  of  whom 
he  is  a  disciple  and  ambassador  ;  secondly,  it  is  a 
7ninistry  of  the  gospel  of  the  grace  of  God,  of  which 
he  is  a  herald  and  witness  ;  third,  it  is  a  ministry 
of  the  kiugdovi  of  God,  in  which  he  is  a  subject  and 
representative  ;  fourth,  it  is  a  ministry  of  the  churcJi 
of  God,  in  which  he  is  a  servant  and  shepherd  ;  fifth, 
a  ministry  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  of  whom  he  is  an  en- 
sample,  and  overseer  or  bishop. 

1  Acts  20  ;  24-28. 


THE    TREACHER'S   VOCATION  *     89 

To  Dr.  Gordon  the  holy  vocation  was  thus  in- 
vested with  this  manifold  opportunity  and  obhga- 
tion,  exalted  privilege  and  commensurate  responsi- 
bility. To  fulfill  these  high  functions,  three  things 
were  pre-eminently  needful :  that  the  word  of  Christ 
should  dwell  in  him  richly,  that  Christ  himself  should 
abide  in  him,  and  that  he  should  be  filled  with  the 
Spirit.  Hence  he  sought  to  know  the  word  thor- 
oughly as  his  text-book,  to  know  Christ  as  his  per- 
sonal Saviour,  and  to  know  the  Holy  Spirit  as  his 
indwelling  Guide. 

He  was,  as  became  a  preacher  of  the  word,  a  man 
of  clear  and  firm  convictions.  If  physiognomy  is 
any  index  of  character,  there  was  no  mistaking  the 
meaning  of  that  large  head,  high,  broad  brow,  firmly 
set  lower  jaw.  It  needed  no  exceptionally  keen  ob- 
server to  detect  and  predict  the  intellectual  capacity, 
intelligent  habit,  and  courageous  conviction,  of  which 
such  signs  were  hung  out  by  nature  herself.  And 
the  signs  were  not  misleading,  for  he  lacked  neither 
mental  power,  nor  clear  vision  of  truth,  and  tena- 
cious hold  upon  it. 

But  this  devout  man  of  God  had  learned  that  it 
is  not  enough  that  one  hold  the  truth,  if  the  truth 
hold  not  him.  "  Tetieo  et  Teneor^  How  grand  the 
significance  of  the  metaphor  in  the  Epistle  to  the 
Ephesians,  which  represents  truth  as  the  girdle  of 
the  warrior  Christian — the  very  zone  that,  grasping 
the  vital  parts,  holds  all  the  other  pieces  of  armor  in 


90      THE  DREAM  AS  INTERPRETING  THE  MAN 

place !  But  let  us  not  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that 
the  minister  of  Christ  must  also  know  his  Master, 
the  living  Word. 

Thackeray  sagaciously  hints  that  there  is  a  law 
of  spiritual  harvest ;  we  sow  a  thought  and  reap  an 
act ;  sow  an  act  and  reap  a  habit ;  sow  a  habit  and 
reap  a  character ;  sow  a  character  and  reap  a  des- 
tiny. A  character  like  that  of  Dr.  Gordon  is  a 
whole  history  brought  to  light ;  it  tells  of  habits  of 
life,  of  thought  as  well  as  conduct,  of  a  secret  com- 
munion with  God  in  the  closet  which  shows  its  fruit 
and  has  its  reward  openly.  Charles  Lamb  satirizes 
the  man  who  vainly  persuades  himself  that  he  can 
eat  garlic  in  secret  and  not  smell  of  it  publicly.  No 
man  can  walk  with  God  in  secret  and  cultivate  the 
acquaintance  of  the  unseen  Christ,  without  charac- 
ter becoming  radiant,  until  even  his  face  will  shine 
though  he  knows  it  not.  Hence  a  minister  is  not  only 
to  be  a  herald  but  a  witness.  He  is  to  tell  what  he 
knows,  testify  to  that  which  he  has  tested  and 
proved  by  testing,  and,  because  experience  limits 
his  testimony,  he  must  aim  at  a  constantly  richer 
and  deeper  experience  in  order  to  a  witness  corres- 
pondingly convincing  and  persuading. 

How  long  will  it  take  us  to  learn  that  power  in 
service  hangs  on  the  height  and  breadth  of  attain- 
ment in  divine  things.^  A  minister  of  Christ  must 
be  like  a  mountain,  soaring  high  godward  into  realms 
of  unclouded  faith  and  serene  communion  ;  for  the 


THE   preacher's   vocation  9 1 


higher  his  level,  the  surer  and  ampler  the  blessing 
he  receives  and  conveys.  The  rains  touch  first  the 
hilltops,  and  thence  flow  to  the  plains  beneath,  and 
the  broader  the  hilltops  the  fuller  and  farther  the 
flood.  How  can  a  congregation  get  a  rich  blessing 
from  a  pastor  who  does  not  live  on  a  high  level  ? 
The  pastorates  which  have  been  most  widely  useful 
prove  beyond  doubt  that  he  who,  in  the  holy  office, 
aspires  to  power,  intense,  extensive,  pervasive,  per- 
manent, must  first  of  all  live  close  to  God,  and 
touch  the  very  heart  of  Christ.  He  must  hear  by 
the  ear  in  the  closet  what  he  is  to  proclaim  with 
the  tongue  from  the  housetops.  The  higher  the 
altitude,  the  richer  the  quality  of  the  life  and  the 
life-imparting  power.  Fellowship  with  God  is  not  to 
be  sought  only  as  a  means  to  an  end,  for  it  is  itself 
the  end  to  which  all  means  must  contribute ;  but, 
when  it  is  so  sought  and  cultivated  for  its  own  sake 
and  so  found  and  felt  as  a  fact  of  consciousness, 
he  who  enjoys  such  fellowship  becomes  the  fount- 
ain of  untold  blessing  to  the  church  and  the  world. 
Andrew  Bonar,  of  Glasgow,  shortly  before  his 
death,  recorded  this  precious  testimony  :  that  from 
the  time  of  his  conversion,  sixty  years  before,  he 
had  not-  passed  a  day  when  he  lost  access  to  the 
mercy-seat.  Is  it  strange  if  he  felt  the  power  of 
Christ,  as  Paul  said,  canopying  him,  like  the  curtains 
of  a  tent .''  ^     The  man  who  thus  lives  daily  with  God 


92      THE  DREAM  AS  INTERPRETING  THE  MAN 

and  in  God,  must  live  by  faith.  At  such  habitual 
heights,  clouds  and  mists  are  left  below,  and  the  soul 
dwells  in  a  clear  atmosphere.  How  many  soever  the 
promises  of  God,  they  are  all  in  Christ,  yea,  and 
through  him,  amen,  subject  to  no  discount,  but  like 
any  sound  financial  paper,  good  for  the  full  face 
value. 

Our  Brother  Gordon  likewise  received,  by  a  defi- 
nite act  of  submission  and  appropriation,  as  he  said 
to  a  few  intimate  friends,  the  Holy  Spirit  as  his 
guide. 

If  any  wondered  at  the  simple  trust  which  led 
him  to  attempt  great  things  for  God  and  expect 
great  things  from  God,  to  undertake  missions  to 
Jews  and  Gentiles,  drunkards  and  outcasts  ;  to  build 
up  a  training  school  for  evangelists  and  mission- 
aries, and  venture  on  God  for  the  supply  of  every 
need,  and,  like  Pastor  Gossner  at  sixty  years  of  age, 
stop  ringing  human  door  bells  and  knock  only  at 
heaven's  gate — the  solution  is  simple :  all  this  mys- 
tery is  unlocked  by  this  one  key — an  elevated  life  of 
godliness,  which  can  be  understood  by  none  who 
live  on  a  low  level,  and  a  complete  surrender  to  the 
Holy  Spirit  to  be  only  a  passive  instrument  in  his 
hands.  Dr.  Gordon  lived  near  enough  to  God  to 
catch  his  own  Spirit,  which  is  love,  unselfish,  self- 
imparting  love — that  "royal  law,"  or  principle  of 
life,  nobler  than  any  mere  emotion  or  affection — 
which  gives,  gives  all,  and  gives  to  all.      Hence  he 


THE    preacher's   VOCATION  93 


not  only  preached  the  gospel  to  all  he  could  reach, 
but  he  was  essentially  a  missionary,  for  the  Spirit 
of  Christ  is  the  spirit  of  missions.  Foreign  missions 
took  passionate  hold  upon  him  because,  like  the 
love  of  God,  they  reach  out  toward  those  most  dis- 
tant and  most  destitute.  His  interest  in  the  heathen, 
so  far  off,  so  needy,  was  largely  involuntary.  Be- 
cause he  was  led  of  the  Spirit  and  taught  of  the 
Spirit,  he  loved  as  God  loves,  and  could  no  more 
limit  his  benevolent  affection  or  beneficent  activity 
to  those  near  by  him,  than  a  full  mountain  stream 
could  determine  to  flow  only  so  far.  If  there  is  but 
little  water  that  fact  sets  a  bound  beyond  which  the 
stream  cannot  pass  ;  but  the  fuller  and  mightier 
the  current,  the  broader  the  channel  and  the  farther 
the  onflow.  Imagine  the  sun  bidding  his  own 
beams  bless  only  the  nearest  planets,  and  let 
Uranus  and  Neptune  be  bound  in  eternal  night  and 
ice !  A  Holy  Ghost  man  nev'er  bounds  his  own  ef- 
fort by  narrow  limits,  or  by  any  limits.  Rivers  of 
living  water  flow  from  him  and  rays  of  divine  light 
emanate  from  him,  and  to  both  there  is  no  limit  but 
the  limits  of  human  need. 

The  ambassador  of  Christ  is  so  identified  with 
his  Sovereign  that  he  may  not  only  ask  but  claim 
his  promised  presence. 

It  is  said  by  Williams  of  Wern,  of  Gryffyth,  the 
Welsh  preacher,  that  having  to  preach  one  night  he 
asked  to  be  allowed  to  withdraw  for  a  time  before 


94      I'HE  DREAM  AS  INTERPRETING  THE  MAN 

the  service  began,  and  remained  so  long  that  the 
good  man  of  the  house  felt  constrained  to  send  his 
servant  to  request  him  to  come  and  meet  the  wait- 
ing congregation.  As  she  came  near  the  room  she 
heard  what  seemed  to  be  an  indication  of  conversa- 
tion between  two  parties,  and,  though  in  a  subdued 
tone  of  voice,  she  caught  the  words  :  "  /  will  not  go 
unltss  fou  come  with  me."  She  returned  and  re- 
ported to  her  master  :  "  I  do  not  think  Mr.  Gryffyth 
will  come  to-night ;  some  one  is  there  with  him, 
and  I  heard  him  say  that  he  will  not  come  unless 
the  other  will  come  also,  but  I  did  not  hear  the 
other  reply,  and  so  I  think  Mr.  Gryffyth  will  not 
come  either."  The  farmer,  understanding  the  true 
case,  replied :  *'  Yes,  /le  will  come  and  I  warrant  the 
other  will  come  too,  if  matters  are  as  you  say  be- 
tween them  ;  but  we  would  better  begin  singing  and 
reading  until  the  ^wo  do  come."  And  sure  enough 
when  Gryffyth  made  his  appearance  there  was  an- 
other who  came  with  him  in  power,  and  that  proved 
a  Pentecostal  meeting  when  many  found  newness  of 
life. 

The  ambassador  of  Christ  has  a  right  to  insist 
reverently  on  his  sovereign  Master's  unseen  pres- 
ence and  manifested  power.  How  significant  that 
prayer  in  the  assembly  of  the  early  church,  when, 
going  out  from  the  threatening  council  to  their  own 
company,  the  apostles  with  one  accord  besought 
God  :  "  And  now,  Lord,  behold  their  threatenings  : 


THE   preacher's   vocation  95 


and  grant  unto  thy  servants,  that  with  all  boldness 
they  may  speak  thy  word,  by  stretching  forth  thine 
hand  to  heal ;  and  that  signs  and  wonders  may  be 
done  by  the  name  of  thy  holy  child  Jesus  "  !  ^  Noth' 
ing  takes  away  boldness  in  testimony  to  the  Lord 
like  the  lack  of  his  co-witness  in  his  mighty  works. 
He  loves  the  reverent  confidence  that  says,  "  I  will 
not  go  unless  thou  go  with  me."  If  we  are  about 
our  Father's  business,  we  have  a  right  to  say  :  "And 
he  that  sent  me  is  with  me." 

1  Acts  4 ;  29,  30. 


IV 

JEALOUSY    FOR    DIVINE    WORSHIP 

PAUL  gives  three  marks  of  the  true  "  circumcis- 
ion "  ;  and  the  first  of  all  is  this  :  the  worship 
of  God  in  the  Spirit/ 

These  are  days  of  especial  peril  from  ritualism 
and  formalism.  This,  which  is  the  leaven  of  the 
Pharisees,  is  perhaps  as  dangerous  as  the  leaven  of 
the  Sadducees,  which  is  rationalism,  or  of  the  Hero- 
dians,  which  is  secularism.  Whenever,  in  the  ages 
of  church  history,  spiritual  worship  has  declined, 
a  formal  devotion  or  at  best  a  devout  formalism  has 
taken  its  place,  and  the  forms  of  worship  have  mul- 
tiplied in  direct  proportion  to  the  lack  of  spirituality 
in  worship.  And  so  there  are  many  who  live  close 
to  God  to  whom  the  modern  multiplication  of  cere- 
monies and  rites  is  an  utter  absurdity. 

An  aged  and  venerable  clergyman  of  the  Anglican 
church,  importuned  by  his  son — who  had  run  off  into 
the  extreme  of  a  Romanizing  ritualism — to  preach 
in  his  "  chapel  of  ease,"  at  last  reluctantly  con- 
sented, but  startled  the  congregation  by  announcing 
as  his  'text,  "  Lord,  have  mercy  upon  my  son,  for  he 
is  a  lunatic,"  and  then  proceeded  to  show  the  utter 

96 


JEALOUSY    FOR   DIVINE   WORSHIP  97 


lunacy  of  modern  methods  by  which  worship  is 
robbed  of  all  its  primitive  simplicity,  of  which  an 
elaborate  ceremonialism  takes  the  place. 

At  an  early  period  in  Dr.  Gordon's  ministry,  he 
began  to  turn  his  attention  to  the  matter  of  public 
worship.  The  Saxon  word  itself  gives  us  a  most  im- 
portant hint, — ivorth-ship, — ascribing  worth  to  God, 
describing  his  worth  in  terms  most  fitting  and  hon- 
oring to  him,  inscribing  that  worth  on  the  door- 
posts and  gates  of  his  sanctuary  not  only,  but  on 
the  gates  and  door-posts  of  our  own  dwellings,  and 
the  expanse  of  our  brows,  and  the  palms  of  our 
hands,  as  something  to  be  constantly  borne  in 
mind. 

The  one  supreme  law  of  worship  is  this  :  "  The 
Lord  alone  shall  be  exalted!'  He  is  a  divinely  jeal- 
ous God,  in  that  he  will  have  no  superior  or  ev^en 
rival  in  the  affections  of  his  people  ;  he  will  not  tol- 
erate even  as  a  medium  of  approach  to  him,  anything 
whereby  our  thought  and  love  are  diverted  from 
him.  The  ancient  altar  was  to  be  of  unhewn  stone, 
lest  the  art  expended  in  its  adornment  by  the  sculp- 
tor's chisel,  might  draw  eyes  from  the  vicarious  vic- 
tim that  lay  upon  it.  And  so,  in  the  house  of  wor- 
ship, anything  whatever  which  intrudes  itself  be- 
tween the  human  soul  and  the  object  of  worship  is 
a  fatal  hindrance  to  the  worshiper  and  a  positive  of- 
fense to  God.  Simplicity  is  of  necessity  the  law  of 
purity  in  worship,  for  it  is  the  condition  of  single- 


98      THE  DREAM  AS  INTERPRETING  THE  MAN 

ness  of  mind.  Elaboration,  which  is  both  the  hand- 
maid and  offspring  of  art,  may  easily  become  idol- 
atrous by  introducing  a  type  and  style  and  standard 
of  eloquence  in  oratory,  of  worldly  excellence  in 
music,  of  aesthetics  in  architecture,  garniture,  and 
furniture,  which  defeat  the  main  purpose  for  which 
worship  is  instituted,  namely,  the  exaltation  of  God 
alone  before  the  fixed  gaze  of  the  soul. 

This  Boston  pastor  saw  and  felt  what  thousands 
seem  unable  to  appreciate,  or  even  apprehend,  that  it 
is  not  hostility  to  artistic  perfection,  but  jealousy  for 
spirituality,  which  inspires  the  purging  of  worship 
from  secular  attractions.  No  man  who  knew  the  pas- 
tor of  Clarendon  Street  Church  could  accuse  him  of 
antagonism  or  indifference  to  the  beautiful,  whether 
in  form  or  color  or  sound.  He  was  no  cast-iron 
utilitarian.  But  he  felt  the  supreme  need  of  a  type 
of  worship  consistent  with  its  divine  conception  and 
answering  to  its  scriptural  purpose.  How  could  a 
choir  of  unconverted  singers  make  melody  in  their 
hearts  unto  the  Lord,  or  inspire  holy  harmony  in 
worshipers  .-'  How  could  a  musical  performance  on 
the  part  of  mere  artists,  hired  at  costly  prices,  fulfill 
the  high  demands  of  public  praise  .-•  He  felt,  and 
to  this  end  he  particularly  wrought,  that  the  hands 
which  touch  the  organ  keys,  or  the  voices  which 
sing  psalms  and  hymns  and  spiritual  songs,  should 
be  themselves  at  the  disposal  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and 
usable  as  his  instruments.      Moreover,  he  felt  that 


JEALOUSY   FOR   DIVINE   WORSHIP  99 

all  worship  must  be  marked  by  unity  of  impression. 
Hence  a  mere  musical  programme,  arranged  for  ar- 
tistic effect,  without  reference  to  harmony  with  the 
truth  presented,  and  with  other  parts  of  worship,  is 
an  anomaly  and  absurdity. 

This  philosophy  of  worship  he  consistently  carried 
out.  It  affected  his  preaching.  He  had  early  begun 
to  study  oratory  as  an  art,  and  his  aim  and  ambition 
were  to  excel  in  public  address.  The  sermon  was  to 
be  an  ideal  product,  a  finished  work  of  brain  and  pen, 
delivered  with  grace  and  skill.  But  he  found  before 
long,  that  there  is  as  much  risk  to  the  preacher  in  ex- 
alting preaching  to  a  fine  art,  as  there  is  to  the  singer 
in  idolizing  the  aesthetic  element  in  sacred  song.  To 
preach  with  wisdom  of  words  has  often  made  the 
Cross  of  none  effect  by  hiding  the  crucified  and  glo- 
rified Christ  behind  the  veil  of  human  eloquence  ; 
and  not  until  that  elaborate  and  embroidered  curtain 
is  rent  in  twain  from  top  to  bottom,  will  the  glory  of 
God  be  revealed.  It  is  possible  to  obscure  the  ob- 
ject of  adoration  by  the  very  clouds  of  incense  with 
which  we  surround  him  ;  to  worship  God  with  forms 
and  methods  which  call  so  much  attention  to  them- 
selves as  to  forfeit  all  transparency  and  surround 
him  with  the  opaque  smoke  from  our  own  censers. 
The  mere  art  of  the  apothecary  has  too  much  to  do 
with  compounding  our  incense,  and  in  it  are  mingled 
too  many  earthly  ingredients ;  there  is  too  much 
smoke  and  too  little  fragrance. 


lOO   THE  DREAM  AS  INTERPRETING  THE  MAN 

Worship,  in  its  wider  scope,  takes  in  all  church 
conduct,  even  to  the  attitude  of  the  worshiper,  physi- 
cal, mental,  moral,  spiritual.  And  the  one  law  to 
keep  before  us,  is  this  :  See  that  thou  make  all  things 
according  to  the  pattern  shewed  to  thee  in  the  mount 
(Heb.  8  :  5).  Whatever  is  unscriptural  is  generally- 
found  to  be  unspiritual.  The  only  way  of  avoiding 
a  Romanizing  ritual  is  to  avert  from  our  worship 
what  is  not  enjoined  or  encouraged  in  the  word  of 
God.  The  spectacular  involves  risk,  for  it  absorbs 
the  attention  through  the  eye  ;  and  the  artisti- 
cally musical,  for  it  absorbs  attention  through  the 
ear ;  whatever  draws  thought  from  God,  hinders 
worship  ;  whatever  tends  to  lift  him  to  sole  promi- 
nence, by  so  much  helps  worship.  And  it  is  not  too 
much  to  say  that  nothing  which  does  not  directly 
or  indirectly  contribute  to  such  exaltation  of  God 
Jias  a  proper  place  in  sanctuary  service.  Prayer  and 
praise,  the  reading  of  the  word  and  the  preaching 
of  the  gospel,  and  even  the  offering  of  consecrated 
substance,  are  all,  therefore,  ways  of  exalting  God, 
because  they  present  man  in  the  attitudes  of  suppli- 
ant and  servant,  student  and  steward,  waiting  at, his 
Lord's  feet. 

How  natural  therefore,  again,  that  our  brother  in 
his  dream  should  searchingly  inquire  what  would 
be  the  verdict  of  his  sovereign  Master  were  he  to 
come  to  church,  as  to  the  reality  or  vanity  of  the 
worship  he  found  there  ! 


V 

THE  AUTHORITY  OF  THE  WORD  OF  GOD 

IF  any  two  characteristics  must  always  be  insepa- 
rably associated  with  this  devout  disciple  whose 
dream  is  here  recorded,  they  must  surely  be 
his  unshaken  confidence  in  the  sevcji-sealed  book  of 
God  and  his  personal  surrender  to  the  seven-fold 
power  of  the  Spirit  of  God.  As  to  the  book,  that 
is  a  remarkable  description  or  designation  given  us 
in  the  fifth  chapter  of  the  Apocalypse — the  scroll, 
written  within  and  on  the  back  side,  sealed  with 
seven  seals.  What  a  striking  metaphor  to  express 
the  very  handwriting  of  God  in  the  inspired  volume, 
attested  with  the  seven-fold  seal  of  complete  au- 
thority and  authenticity,  and  so  bearing  the  unmis- 
takable sanction  of  the  divine  Author  ! 

The  work  will  bear  the  marks  of  the  workman — 
his  knowledge  and  wisdom,  skill  and  design.  More- 
over, the  more  perfect  the  workmanship  the  more 
complete  the  exhibition  of  the  character  of  him  who 
thought  out  and  wrought  out  such  j^erfection  of 
product.  Now  it  is  very  remarkable  that  just  such 
seven-fold  perfection  is  claimed  for  the  word  of  God. 
We  associate  with  him  who  is  its  author,  seven  at- 
tributes :  such  as  omnipotence,  omniscience,  omni- 


I02   THE  DREAM  AS  INTERPRETING  THE  MAN 


presence — natural  attributes ;  and  providence,  truth, 
righteousness,  and  love — moral  attributes.  All  these 
his  word  displays  in  a  remarkable  manner  and  degree  : 

His  Omnipotence,  in  the  miracles  of  power  which 
it  records. 

His  Omniscience,  in  its  predictive  prophecies. 

His  Omnipresence,  in  its  unity  of  plan  and  struct- 
ure. 

His  Providence,  in  its  history  and  biography. 

His  Truth,  in  its  general  accuracy. 

His  Righteousness,  in  its  faultless  morality. 

His  Love,  in  its  transforming  energy. 

No  survey  of  the  inspired  word  is  complete  until 
it  takes  in  all  these  forms  of  proof  and  methods  of 
attestation  and  authentication.  As  it  is  of  the 
utmost  importance  to  us  to  know  beyond  doubt  that 
the  Bible  is  God's  book,  and  to  repose  with  abso- 
lute certainty  upon  its  teachings,  God  has  so  fully 
set  his  seal  and  sanction  upon  it  that  no  reasonable 
doubt  remains.  And  it  is  significant  that  all  these 
proofs  of  its  divine  origin  lie  zvitJiin  itself,  so  that 
we  have  only  to  search  the  Scriptures  to  find  God's 
seven-fold  seal  impressed  on  them  all  the  way 
through. 

A.  J.  Gordon  was  the  man  of  the  book,  and  of 
the  one  book.  No  man,  perhaps,  of  his  generation, 
has  done  more  in  the  line  of  Christian  apologetics, 
but  it  was  mostly  by  indirection.  He  defended  the 
Bible  by  expounding  it. 


THE   AUTHORITY   OF   THE   WORD   OF   GOD    103 


His  attitude  toward  the  Holy  Scriptures  was 
beautifully  reverent.  To  him  the  Bible  was  a  liv- 
ing book,  not  only  containing  a  divine  message,  but 
divinely  inbreathed,  and  therefore  instinct  with  the 
divine  life.  As  God  first  made  man  out  of  the  dust 
of  the  ground,  and  then  breathed  into  him  the 
breath  of  life,  so  that  man  became  a  living  soul,  so, 
whatever  was  earthly  and  human  in  the  book  had 
taken  form  and  fashion  under  the  finger  of  God 
and  had  become  living  by  the  breath  of  his  divine 
inspiration.  This  humble  believer  went  to  the 
Bible  not  as  to  a  dead  book  but  as  to  a  living  being ; 
he  communed  with  the  word  as  with  a  person,  and 
expected  to  find  in  such  converse  the  response  to 
his  advances  and  questionings,  and  he  was  not  dis- 
appointed. He  has  often  spoken  of  the  word  of 
God  as  giving  answer,  as  one  prayerfully  searches 
it  and  seeks  guidance  in  doubt,  difficulty,  and  per- 
plexity ;  and,  in  common  with  the  most  prayerful 
students  of  its  mysteries,  he  found  the  heavenly 
Interpreter  unfolding  and  applying  its  truths  with 
the  skill  of  a  personal  counsellor. 

Dr.  Gordon  was  not  among  those  who  doubt 
either  the  inspiration  or  infallibility  of  the  divine 
word.  He  believed  that  it  was  essentially  inerrant, 
and  when  he  found  difficulties  or  discrepancies,  in- 
stead of  distrusting  the  accuracy  of  the  divine  ora- 
cles, he  rather  suspected  the  accuracy  of  his  own 
understanding.      He  traced  the  defects,  not  to  the 


I04  THE  DREAM  AS  INTERPRETING  THE  MAN 

objects  seen,  but  to  the  eye  seeing ;  and  when  con- 
tradiction was  apparent,  he  waited,  as  when  the  twin 
pictures  of  the  stereoscope  fail  to  blend,  one  waits 
to  get  the  common  focal  center  of  vision  which  re- 
solves the  discord  into  harmonious  unity.  In  other 
departments  of  knowledge  we  understand  in  order 
to  believe  ;  but  in  this  divine  science  of  spiritual 
mysteries  we  believe  in  order  to  understand. 
Faith  is  philosophy  here,  and  obedience  is  the  organ 
of  spiritual  vision  :  "  If  any  man  will  do  his  will  he 
shall  know  of  the  doctrine."  "  If  ye  will  not  be- 
lieve, surely  ye  shall  not  be  established." 

To  this  constant  and  searching  study  of  the  word 
of  God,  our  departed  brother  owed  much  of  the 
energy  and  beauty  of  his  wa'itings. 

In  literary  style  he  revealed  remarkable  power  in 
analysis  and  antithesis,  and  these  are  perhaps  the 
most  conspicuous  features  of  his  composition.  He 
saw  truth  in  itself  and  its  relations.  He  had  the 
homiletical  faculty  which  detects  the  natural  divi- 
sions of  a  text  or  theme  as  an  astronomer  sees 
orderly  constellations  where  common  eyes  see  only 
irregular  and  scattered  stars.  The  facility  and 
felicity  with  which  he  saw  and  expressed  the  ele- 
ments of  a  complete  truth,  discriminated  between 
things  that  differ,  and  arranged  and  adjusted  related 
truths,  were  very  remarkable.  He  must  have  been 
a  clear  thinker  to  make  such  clear  distinctions. 
There    was    no    indefinite    haze    or    indiscriminate 


THE   AUTHORITY   OF   THE  WORD   OF   GOD    IO5 


muddle  about  his  views  or  statements  of  truth  ;  and 
we  cannot  but  think  that  he  owed  even  these  liter- 
ary attainments  largely  to  the  daily  study  of  His 
words  who  spake  as  never  man  spake. 

A  few  examples  may  both  prove  and  illustrate 
what  we  have  said.  In  that  remarkable  book  on 
"The  Ministry  of  the  Spirit,"  contrasting  the  work 
of  Conscience  and  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  he  thus 
represents  the  matter  :  ^ 

Conscience  Convinces —  The  Comforter  Convinces — 

Of  sin  committed  ;  Of  sin  committed  ; 

Of  righteousness  impossible ;  Of  righteousness  imputed  ; 

Of  judgment  impending.  Of  judgment  accompHshed. 

He  further  says,^  that  "  Conscience  is  the  witness 
to  the  law ;  the  Spirit  is  the  witness  to  grace. 
Conscience  brings  legal  conviction ;  the  Spirit 
brings  evangelical  conviction ;  the  one  begets  a 
conviction  unto  despair,  the  other  a  conviction  unto 
hope." 

Who  cannot  see  in  such  distinctions  and  dis- 
criminations as  these  the  fruits  of  a  microscopic 
study  of  the  inspired  word  .■*  The  man  who  believed 
Scripture  to  be  "  literature  indwelt  by  the  Spirit  of 
God";^  that  in  the  Scripture  the  Holy  Ghost 
speaks,  and  "  we  can  only  understand  his  thoughts 
by  listening  to  his  words";*  such  a  man  would 
naturally    examine    into    the    exact    terms    used, 

^  Page  201.  2  Page  189.  3  Page  169.  ■•  Page  172. 


I06   THE  DREAM  AS  INTERPRETING  THE  MAN 

and  into  the  nicest  shades  of  meaning  which  dis- 
tinguish them  from  each  other,  and  so  learn  for 
himself  to  use  language  with  deep  apprehension  of 
its  significance  and  critical  accuracy  in  its  applica- 
tion to  the  expression  of  ideas. 


VI 

THE    SCRIPTURAL    PATTERN    OF    CHURCH    LIFE 

«  P^OR  see,  saith  he,  that  thou  make  all  things  ac- 
][^  cording  to  the  pattern  shewed  to  thee  in 
the  mount."  The  church  is  a  divine  institu- 
tion. It  grew  not,  as  many  human  institutions 
do,  by  a  process  of  evolution  out  of  man's  con- 
scious need.  He  who  saw  what  m_an  needed,  fash- 
ioned this  society  of  believers,  and  it  was  complete 
in  all  essentials  from  the  first. 

But,  to  tarry  further  on  the  thought  of  a  script- 
ural pattern  of  church  life,  this  dream  reveals  the 
whole  secret  of  Dr.  Gordon's  purpose.  He  was  not 
a  dictator  seeking  to  have  his  own  way,  and  auto- 
cratically forcing  on  the  church  his  own  will ;  nor  a 
half-crazy  fanatic  following  some  vagary  or  imprac- 
ticable theory ;  but,  like  Moses,  he  had  his  eye  on 
a  scriptural  and  divine  pattern,  and  he  long  and 
laboriously  wrought  to  mold  everything  in  church 
life  according  thereto.  That  a  custom  had  grown 
up  was  no  reason  for  its  continuance  ;  it  might  be, 
as  Cyprian  said,  vetnstas  crroris.  "  Every  plant 
which  my  Heavenly  Father  hath  not  planted  shall 
be  rooted  up,"  said  his  Master  before  him,  when  his 
attention  was  called  to  the  fact  that  his  teaching 

107 


I08   THE  DREAM  AS  INTERPRETING  THE  MAN 

had  given  the  Pharisees  offense.  And  the  imper- 
turbable spirit  with  which  Pastor  Gordon  cahiily 
went  forward,  without  undue  carefulness  as  to  the 
opinions  or  opposition  he  encountered,  in  the  pur- 
suit of  his  object,  must  have  been  caught  from  his 
Master.  He  found  some  plants  growing  in  the 
sanctuary  courts  which  he  knew  his  Heavenly  Father 
had  not  planted,  and  he  determined  to  root  them  up, 
though  it  might  take  twenty  years  to  do  it,  as  it  did. 

It  may  be  well  to  ask,  what  are  the  scriptural 
marks  of  a  church  of  Christ  .-*  They  seem  to  be  four  : 
the  apostolic  church  was  an  assembly  for  worsJiip  ; 
an  organized  body  for  aggressive  work  for  Christ  ; 
a  school  for  training  disciples  ;  a  home  for  the  family 
of  God.  Doubtless  all  that  vitally  pertains  to  the 
original  scriptural  conception  of  a  church  of  Christ 
can  be  included  in  this  simple  outline. 

I.  Worship  was  the  leading  idea,  as  we  have  seen, 
the  exalting  of  God,  and  his  dear  son  Jesus  Christ, 
and  the  Holy  Spirit,  before  the  thought  and  ador- 
ing love  of  disciples.  We  find  not  a  trace  of  sacred 
places,  or  sacred  persons,  and  scarce  a  hint  of  sacred 
times  or  seasons.  Wherever  and  whenever  God  and 
his  worshiping  people  met,  the  ground  was  thereby 
hallowed  and  the  time  sanctified  ;  and  all  believers 
seem  to  have  been  singularly  on  a  level,  preaching 
the  word,  teaching  the  way  of  God  more  perfectly, 
and  even  administering  sacramental  rites. ^     Worship 

^  Compare  Acts  8:4;  il  :  19-21 ;  18  :  26 ;  8  ;  35-38. 


SCRIPTURAL.  PATTERN  OF  CHURCH  LIFE     IO9 


seems  to  have  been  perfectly  simple,  consisting  of 
prayer,  praise,  reading  and  expounding  the  word, 
bearing  witness  to  the  resurrection  of  Christ,  bap- 
tizing believers,  and  breaking  bread  in  his  name, 
witli  at  least  occasional  offerings  for  poor  saints. 
There  are  no  clerical  prerogatives,  titled  officials, 
choirs  or  hired  singers,  no  secular  trustees,  no 
worldly  entertainments,  no  consecrated  buildings, 
and  not  a  sign  of  a  salaried  service  of  any  sort. 
God  seems  to  be  the  center  around  which  the  early 
church  crystallized,  and  the  whole  organization  of 
believers  was  free  from  complicated  methods  and 
worldly  maxims. 

2.  Work  by  all,  in  diverse  spheres  of  activity,  ac- 
cording to  diversity  of  gifts,  was  the  law  of  church 
life.  The  Spirit  speaks  expressly  in  the  Epistle  to 
the  Ephesians,^  that  the  very  purpose  of  all  offices 
and  functions,  apostles,  prophets,  evangelists,  pas- 
tors, and  teachers,  was  one  sublime  end  :  service. 
All  the  gifts  and  graces  bestowed  and  distributed 
by  the  Spirit  were  for  the  perfecting  of  the  saints 
unto  the  work  of  serving,  unto  the  building  up  of 
the  body  of  Christ,  so  that  there  might  be  the 
double  growth  of  accession  and  expansion.  The 
early  church  had  no  room  for  an  idle  and  selfish 
soul.  Every  believer  was  a  worker,  warrior,  wit- 
ness. He  came  into  the  church  as  soon  as  he  be- 
lieved and  was  baptized,  to  be  a  member  in  the  body 
^  4 :  ii-i6. 

M 


no   THE  DREAM  AS  INTERPRETING  THE  MAN 

where  every  member  had  an  office,  and  must  needs 
fulfill  his  function  in  order  to  the  health  and  help  of 
the  whole  body.  The  idea  of  simply  coming  into 
the  church  as  a  candidate  for  salvation  has  no  place 
in  apostolic  ideas  whatever.  The  church  was  com- 
posed of  professedly  regenerated  people,  giving 
themselves  to  the  work  of  edifying  saints  and  evan- 
gelizing sinners. 

3.  The  school  feature  is  prominent.  The  believer 
was  a  disciple,  a  learner,  and  he  was  to  be  docile 
and  humble  enough  to  be  ready  to  be  taught  by  any 
one  competent  to  teach.  In  the  majority  of  cases, 
converts  needed  instruction,  and  there  is  nothing 
more  beautiful  than  where  Apollos,  the  scholar  and 
orator  of  Alexandria,  puts  himself  under  the  tuition 
of  two  poor  tent-makers  of  Corinth,  one  of  them  a 
woman,  to  be  taught  the  way  of  God  more  perfectly. 
The  first  theological  seminary  was  a  humble  lodging, 
with  a  single  student  and  two  professors,  a  man  and 
his  wife,  and  the  wife  the  head  of  the  faculty.  Sub- 
lime simplicity  indeed  !  where  he  that  hears  and 
believes  enters  a  divine  school,  and  takes  his  place 
as  a  pupil  to  be  further  taught  whatsoever  Christ 
has  commanded,  and  trained  to  be  a  teacher  and 
helper  of  others. 

4.  We  must  add  to  all  these  the  conception  of  a 
family  home.  In  order  to  become  a  radiating  point 
the  church  must  be  first  a  rallying  point.  There 
must  be  a  bond  of  brotherhood  and  association  in 


SCRIPTURAI.  PATTERN  OF  CHURCH  LIFE     III 


order  to  a  mutual  edification  and  an  effective  co- 
operation in  service.  And  so  we  find  love,  the  bond 
of  perfectness  and  the  impulse  to  all  service,  domi- 
nant in  the  early  church.  Love  knows  no  distinc- 
tions, except  it  be  in  favor  of  the  least  and  lowest, 
and  love  made  everybody  welcome  and  at  home. 
Poverty  and  obscurity,  ignorance  and  illiteracy,  shut 
no  convert  out  from  sympathy  and  fellowship. 
Within  the  assembly  of  saints  there  were  no  caste 
lines  or  barriers.  The  idea  of  renting:  or  selline; 
pews  or  sittings  at  auction  to  the  highest  bidder — 
of  setting  up  a  property  right  and  restriction  in  a 
place  of  worship,  to  make  a  poor  man  feel  ill  at  ease 
or  shut  him  out  altogether — the  very  suggestion  is 
utterly  foreign  to  all  New  Testament  notions.' 

A  preacher  and  pastor  who  thus  magnifies  his 
ministry  in  its  five-fold  relation  to  the  person  of 
Christ  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  gospel  of  grace,  the 
church  of  God  and  the  kingdom  of  God,  as  in  every 
department  simply  a  service,  will  communicate,  con- 
sciously or  unconsciously,  the  contagion  of  his  holy 
enthusiasm  to  all  receptive  hearers.  His  preaching 
will  be  a  university  education  in  divine  things.  He 
will  not  think  of  his  church  as  d,  field  to  work  so  much 
as  a  force  to  work  with  ;  not  as  the  parish  which 
claims  and  bounds  his  love  and  labor  so  much  as  the 
garner  containing  the  good  seed  of  the  kingdom,  to 
be  scattered  for  a  harvest.      He  will  try  to  train 

1  Compare  I  Cor.  Ii  :  17-22;  James  2  :  1-9. 


112   THE  DREAM  AS  INTERPRETING  THE  MAN 

every  believer  into  a  herald  and  witness,  so  that 
from  ear  to  heart  and  then  from  heart  to  lip  and  so 
from  lip  to  ear  again,  the  gospel  message  may  run 
on  its  ceaseless  round  of  salvation. 

Because  Dr.  Gordon  kept  such  a  scriptural  pat- 
tern before  him  and  worked  toward  that,  he  gradu- 
ally purged  worship  of  all  its  meretricious  secular 
arts,  led  his  people  into  manifold  forms  of  holy  ser- 
vice, made  the  church  literally  a  training  school  for 
disciples,  and  a  home  where  poor  and  rich,  high  and 
low,  met  on  terms  of  equal  right  and  privilege. 
There  was  nothing  for  which  he  wrought  which  was 
not  a  part  of  the  scriptural  model,  and  he  succeeded 
because  he  knew  that  God  was  with  him  and  he 
could  afford  to  wait  God's  time. 

We  can  again  understand  the  dream  and  its  in- 
terpretation, for  it  is  obvious  that,  in  waking  and 
sleeping  hours  alike,  the  question  before  him  was, 
what  would  Christ  himself  say  if  he  came  to  church.? 
Would  he  iind  the  assembly  of  saints  exemplifying 
the  scriptural  and  spiritual  idea  of  the  body  of 
Christ  ? 


VIl 


THE     PRESIDENCY    OF    THE    SPIRIT    IN    THE     CHURCH 

JOHN  OWEN  gave  to  the  church  a  Pncmna- 
tologia — a  discourse  upon  the  Holy  Spirit 
which,  in  his  day,  taught  the  church  a  much 
needed  lesson.  He  maintained  that  each  different 
age  has  its  own  test  of  orthodoxy.  Before  Christ 
came  it  was  found  in  the  attitude  of  God's  people 
as  to  Messianic  prophecy  ;  in  the  day  of  Christ's 
personal  incarnation,  it  was  found  in  his  reception 
or  rejection  by  those  to  whom  he  presented  his 
claims  as  Son  of  God ;  after  the  day  of  Pentecost 
the  test  was  whether  or  not  we  have  received  the 
Holy  Ghost,  and  how  far  he  has  freedom  to  work 
in  and  through  us. 

Adoniram  J.  Gordon,  unconsciously  perhaps, 
gave  to  the  church  another  pneiimatologia.  He 
sought  to  realize  for  himself  what  it  meant  to  be 
like  Daniel,  "greatly  beloved  of  God  "  ;  and  so  he 
became  in  himself  both  an  expression  and  exhibition 
of  the  fact  of  the  Spirit's  indwelling  and  inworking. 
From  this  personal  experience  he  carried  the  doc- 
trine and  influence  into  the  collective  body  of  be- 
lievers, and  so  sought  to  make  the  church  of  which 
he  was  pastor  a  living  temple  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 


114   THE  DREAM  AS  INTERPRETING  THE  MAN 

This  conception  of  tlie  indwelling  and  presidency 
of  the  Holy  Spirit  affected  two  great  spheres  :  first, 
his  individual  life ;  and  secondly,  his  pastoral  life. 
Personally  he  was  so  indwelt  by  the  Spirit  that 
he  saw  truth  through  illumined  eyes.  He  was  a 
seer,  a  modern  prophet,  in  the  sense  of  insight  if 
not  of  foresight.  In  Samuel's  days  "  there  was  no 
open  vision,"  and  the  word  of  the  Lord  was  corre- 
spondingly precious.  Hannah's  son  was  not  only 
a  Samuel,  God-asked,  but  a  Theodore,  God-given — a 
special  bestowment  of  the  Lord  to  revive  the  spirit 
of  prophecy  and  restore  the  open  vision.  A.  J.  Gordon 
was  given  of  God  to  the  modern  church  in  the  days 
of  a  waning  spirituality,  when  the  sense  of  the  Holy 
Spirit's  personality,  deity,  and  even  reality  was  dull 
and  dim,  and  in  some  cases  quite  lost,  to  revive  the 
impression  and  quicken  the  expression  of  the 
Spirit's  actual  and  active  indwelling.  If  he  had 
any  special  office  which  was  unique,  it  was  to  ap- 
preciate, and  in  his  own  person  and  life  illustrate, 
the  inworking  and  outworking  of  the  Holy  Ghost ; 
and  on  a  larger  scale  furnish  both  demonstration 
and  illustration  of  the  Spirit's  administration  of 
church  life  also  under  favorable  conditions. 

Upon  this  last  and  most  important  department  of 
thought  it  is  the  less  necessary  to  dilate,  inasmuch 
as  to  it  Dr.  Gordon  gives  more  than  thirty  pages  in 
his  work  on  "  The  Ministry  of  the  Spirit."  ^    But,  for 

'  Chapter  vii. 


THE  SPIRIT  IN  THE  CHURCH  1 15 

the  sake  of  those  who  may  not  have  read  that  mas- 
terly treatise,  and  to  complete  the  interpretation  of 
this  dream,  it  may  be  well  to  sketch  in  outline  the 
simple  yet  sublime  conception  presented  in  Scripture, 
and  particularly  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  of  the 
Spirit's  administration  of  church  life. 

Considered  as  a  temple  of  which  Christ  is  the 
corner-stone,  and  in  which  believers  are  living 
stones,  he  is  the  Divine  Indweller,  and  holds  there 
his  throne  and  seat,  as  the  Shekinah  in  the  Holy  of 
Holies  of  old.  Considered  as  a  body  of  which 
Christ  is  the  head,  and  all  regenerate  souls  mem- 
bers, he  is  the  all-pervading  and  controlling  Spirit 
that  vitalizes  and  subsidizes  the  whole.  The  mo- 
ment such  a  conception  is  formed  in  the  mind, 
all  the  rest  follows.  He  who  is  enthroned  in  a 
temple  properly  claims  all  homage  and  obedience ; 
he  who  as  the  Spirit  of  Life  fills  and  thrills  the 
body,  not  only  may  but  imist  rule  in  the  whole 
organism,  unless  as  in  diseased  members  the  condi- 
tions are  so  abnormal  as  to  interrupt  his  proper 
activity.  And  again,  as  the  spirit  of  life  is  the 
organizing  power  in  the  body,  and  distributes  blood, 
nerve-force,  nutritive  energy  in  every  part  of  the 
body,  and,  as  the  central  will,  wields  for  life's  ends 
every  member  and  organ — so  the  Spirit  of  God 
where  he  is  permitted  to  control  absolutely  will 
make  every  part  of  the  body  of  Christ  both  health- 
ful and  useful.      If  \xq  yield  ho.  will  'zvicld. 


Il6  THK  DREAM  AS  INTERPRETING  THE  MAN 

Hence  follow  several  vital  conclusions  : 
I.  As  to  the  constitution  and  organization  of 
the  church,  members  should  be  added,  and  all 
officers  should  be  appointed,  by  the  Spirit.  No 
ceremonies,  ordinances,  or  sacraments  can  make  a 
church-member  any  more  than  any  human  power 
can  add  a  member  to  the  body.  We  are  to  be  jeal- 
ous and  zealous  not  to  have  multitudes  added  to 
church  rolls,  but  "to  the  Lord."  And,  in  electing 
officers,  we  are  to  look  out  those  who  have  not 
only  honest  report  and  wisdom  but  are  full  of  the 
Holy  GJiost ;  otherwise  how  can  he  be  unhindered 
in  his  administration .-'  Every  unregenerate  or  even 
unsanctified  man  or  woman  in  a  church  office  or 
even  a  church-membership,  obstructs  the  divine  policy 
of  administration,  so  that  we  may  virtually  unseat 
the  Holy  Spirit  from  his  rightful  throne  and  "  see," 
by  putting  into,  or  allowing  to  be  put  into,  places  of 
official  trust,  those  who  are  not  in  sympathy  with 
the  Spirit's  mind  and  methods.  What  then  shall 
be  said  of  the  invention  of  a  whole  hierarchy,  which 
borrows  its  entire  framework  from  Constantine's 
imperial  court,  with  a  score  of  offices  unknown  to 
the  apostolic  church,  with  vestments  and  diadems, 
palaces  and  retinues,  salaries  and  dignities ;  and 
what  of  the  presumption  of  claiming  to  be  the  vicar 
of  Christ,  when  his  ascension  gift  was  his  own  Di- 
vine Vicar,  the  Paraclete !  Is  this  not  indirect 
blasphemy  against  the  Holy  Spirit .'' 


THE   SPIRIT   IN   THE   CHURCH  1 17 


We  begin  to  understand  now  why  this  gifted 
pastor  cared  so  little  for  ecclesiastical  honors,  digni- 
ties, and  preferments.  He  yielded  himself  to  the 
Holy  Spirit,  to  be  simply  a  servant — the  servant  of 
Christ  and  the  servant  of  the  church  for  Jesus' 
sake.  All  airs  and  assumptions  of  lordship  were  to 
him  arrogant  and  offensive,  and  implied  disloyalty 
to  the  Spirit.  He  was  one  of  those  of  whom  Hud- 
son Taylor  says  that  they  are  not  so  anxious  to  be 
successors  of  the  apostles  who  went  indeed  to  bring 
food  but  brought  no  inquiring  soul  back  with  them, 
as  to  be  successors  of  the  Samaritan  woman  who 
forgot  her  waterpot  in  her  zeal  to  bear  the  living 
water  to  the  thirsty  souls  at  Sychar,  and  brought 
back  a  whole  city  to  sit  at  Jesus'  feet. 

2.  As  to  the  distribution  of  spheres  of  service. 
Who  is  he  that  sets  in  the  church,  apostles,  prophets, 
evangelists,  pastors  and  teachers,  elders  and  dea- 
cons and  deacones"=;es  ;  and  appoints  every  servant 
for  every  service  ?  Who  knows  the  heart,  and 
knows  the  work,  and  can  fit  each  for  the  other,  but 
the  Lord,  the  Spirit  ?  Of  what  transcendent  im- 
portance to  the  church  to  have  a  divine  wisdom 
select  and  a  divine  grace  qualify  every  member  for 
his  own  office ;  nay,  to  have  the  Spirit  determine 
what  work  needs  to  be  done,  and  what  are  the  time, 
place,  and  way  to  begin  it  or  enlarge  it !  What  an 
awfully  august  privilege  and  responsibility  com- 
bined, if  it  be  possible  and  practicable  for  a  church 


Il8   THE  DREAM  AS  INTERPRETING  THE  MAN 

SO  to  be  surrendered  to  the  Holy  Ghost  and  domi- 
nated by  him,  as  that  in  all  deliberations  and  deter- 
minations, in  all  results  reached  through  prayerful 
counsel  and  obedient  self-surrender,  it  may  be 
reverently  true  to  say,  "  It  sccDicd  good  to  tJie  Holy 
Ghost  and  to  21s. " 

3.  As  to  the  practical  purity  and  spirituality  of 
church  life.  Temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost !  Body  of 
Christ  indwelt  by  the  Spirit  of  God  !  What  a  hal- 
lowing must  there  be  to  those  who  really  believe 
this  !  What  a  sad  commentary  on  the  church's  at- 
titude toward  the  Spirit,  that  it  is  possible  without 
remonstrance  for  godless  singers  to  be  hired  to 
conduct  the  service  of  song,  which  is  a  mockery 
without  the  grace  in  the  heart  that  makes  melody 
unto  the  Lord !  That  it  is  possible  in  choosing  a 
pastor,  to  consult  only  his  intellectual  standing  and 
popular  oratory,  without  ever  asking  whether  he  be 
a  spirit-filled  man  !  That  it  is  possible  for  such  an 
unscriptural  office  to  exist  as  that  of  secular  trustees, 
and  that  men  should  be  deliberately  put  into  control 
without  any  regard  often  to  the  fact  that  they  do 
not  even  profess  to  be  regenerate ! 

There  are  some  who  cry  down,  by  the  obnoxious 
name  of  "pessimism,"  those  who  hint  that  the 
modern  church  is  drifting  toward  apostasy.  Yet 
what  is  apostasy  but  a  departure  from  the  essential 
principles  of  Christian  life  and  church  life !  And 
Dr.  Gordon,  gentle  as  he  was,  and  slow  to  accuse 


THE   SPIRIT   IN   THE   CHURCH  II9 

his  brethren,  felt  in  his  soul  that  the  church  of 
Christ  has  largely  lost  sight  of  the  very  essentials  of 
a  Spirit-filled  and  Spirit-ruled  body  ;  and  that  Ro- 
manizing ritualism,  rationalistic  skepticism,  and  a 
world-assimilating  secularism,  are  the  trinity  practi- 
cally worshiped  in  the  place  of  Father,  Son,  and 
Holy  Ghost. 


VIII 

THE  LAST  MESSAGE  TO  THE  CHURCH 

DR.  GORDON  being  dead  yet  speaketh.      Per- 
haps some  who  would  not  hear  while  he  lived 
will  listen,  now  that  he  is  no  more  among  us, 
to  the  last  message  which  he  can  ever  deliver  to  his 
brethren. 

What  is  the  voice  that  breaks  even  the  death 
silence .'' 

1.  He  tells  us  that  preaching  is  nothing  if  it  be 
not  the  utterance  of  the  mind  of  the  Spirit,  and  that, 
therefore,  we  who  speak  must  tarry  long  in  the 
closet  with  the  word,  that  he  may  unloose  its  seals 
and  unveil  our  eyes  to  behold  wondrous  things  out 
of  his  inspired  book. 

2.  He  tells  us  that  prayer  is  the  one  vital  element 
in  all  true  worship,  praying  in  the  Holy  Ghost,  ask- 
ing in  Christ's  name  and  by  the  power  of  the  Spirit ; 
the  believer  becoming  the  channel  of  a  double  inter- 
cession, the  Holy  Spirit  interceding  within  by  orig- 
inating all  true  prayer,  the  ascended  Christ  inter- 
ceding at  God's  own  right  hand,  by  receiving,  per-^ 
fecting,  and  transmitting  all  true  prayer. 

3.  He  tells  us  that  praise,  which  is  the  element 
of  worship  apposite  to  prayer,  needs  a  spiritual  mind 


THE   LAST  MESSAGE  TO  THE  CHURCH      121 


to  appreciate  and  a  spiritual  frame  to  exercise  it. 
Church  music  as  a  fine  art  simply,  is  an  affront  to 
God  rather  than  an  approach  to  him,  for  it  assumes 
and  presumes  to  set  up  an  art  standard  in  place  of 
the  beauty  of  holiness.  There  are  two  passages, 
respectively  in  the  Epistles  to  the  Ephesians  ^  and 
the  Colossians,  which  being  combined,  would  read 
somewhat  thus  : 

"  Let  the  word  of  Christ  dwell  in  you  richly  in 
all  wisdom,  and  be  filled  with  the  Spirit ;  speaking 
among  yourselves,  teaching  and  admonishing  one 
another  in  psalms  and  hymns  and  spiritual  songs, 
singing  with  grace  in  your  hearts  and  making  mel- 
ody in  your  hearts  to  the  Lord."  Thus  combined, 
we  get  a  little  world  of  suggestive  teaching  in  this 
narrow  compass.  We  are  taught  that  the  pre- 
requisite to  all  holy  service  in  song  is  two-fold  :  rich 
indwelling  of  the  word  of  God,  and  complete  infill- 
ing of  the  Spirit  ;  then  our  songs  become  a  holy 
outpouring  of  a  spiritual  acquaintance  with  the  word 
of  God  and  the  Spirit  of  God.  Again,  we  are 
taught  that  the  attraction  of  such  song  is  found  in 
the  grace  and  melody  of  heart,  which  only  God  can 
detect  or  hear.  But  we  are  also  taught  a  lesson, 
most  unique  and  novel,  that  such  song  is  a  vehicle 
for  mutual  teaching,  exhorting,  admonishing.  In 
other  words,  it  is  one  way  of  preaching  the  gospel 
of  salvation  to  sinners  and  of  edification  to  saints. 

1  Eph.  5  :  19;   Col.  3  :  16. 

N 


122   THE  DREAM  AS  INTERPRETING  THE  MAN 

How  blind  we  have  been  that  we  have  never 
understood  the  vakie  of  holy  song  as  a  means  of 
teaching,  reproof,  correction,  and  instruction  in  right- 
eousness, like  the  inspired  Scripture,  and  of  imparting 
wisdom,  grace,  strength,  comfort,  like  the  inspiring 
Spirit  !  Church  music,  purged  of  its  secular  cor- 
ruptions and  charged  with  the  Spirit's  life,  might 
become  spn"itual  food  and  drink,  medicine  and  mes- 
sage, all  at  once ;  a  feeder,  healer,  helper  of  souls. 
Is  it  that  now  ? 

The  dream  and  the  dreamer  are  left  to  us  only  in 
memory.  But  was  not  God  speaking  to  the  whole 
church  when,  in  the  visions  of  the  night,  he  stamped 
on  Pastor  Gordon's  mind  and  heart  the  image  of 
Christ  coming  to  chiircJi  ? 

Let  us  judge  ourselves,  that  we  be  not  judged. 
Let  us  try  our  ways  and  turn  again  unto  the  Lord, 
Let  us  dare  cease  measuring  ourselves  by  ourselves, 
and  comparing  ourselves  among  ourselves,  and  set 
up  God's  own  standard  of  measurement  and  com- 
parison. 

"And  the  Lord  said  unto  me,  .  .  What  seest 
thou  1 

And  I  said,  A  plumbline. 

Then  said  the  Lord, 

Behold,  I  will  set  a  plumbline  m  the  midst  of 
my  people."  ^ 

God  is  applying  his  standard  to  the  work  which 
1  Amjs  7  ;  8. 


THE  LAST  MESSAGE  TO  THE  CHURCH      I2^ 


men  have  builded,  and  its  unhallowed  and  irregular 
construction  is  sadly  evident.  Who  among  us  with 
the  Clearness  of  a  divinely  given  vision,  the  courage 
of  a  divinely  wrought  conviction,  will  dare  pull  down 
what  is  not  plumb  and  level  by  his  standards,  and  re- 
build according  to  the  divine  pattern  ? 

Blessed  temple  of  God,  indeed,  to  which  the  Mas- 
ter can  come  and  find  no  need  of  the  scourge  of 
small  cords.      Blessed  church  of  which  he  can  say  : 

"  Thou  hast  kept  my  word. 

And  hast  not  denied  my  name. 

I  have  loved  thee. 

Because  thou  hast  kept  the  word  of  my  patience, 

I  also  will  keep  thee 

From  the  hour  of  temptation."  ^ 

'  1  Rev.  ^  :  8-IO. 


Princeton  TheoioaK;al  Seminar.  Lg|^ 


1    1012  01246  9583 


Date  Due 

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